123! UCLA Women's Water Polo Caps off Perfect Season with NCAA Championship
UCLA defeated UC Berkeley 7-4 to cap off a perfect 26-0 season en route to the program's 8th NCAA Title and 12th National Championship.
CLA Bruins women’s water polo team came into Sunday’s national championship game with history on the line, looking to become the 5th team all-time (and the third UCLA team) to go undefeated for an entire season and win a national championship. All they had to do was go through UC Berkeley at the Bears’ own pool, a situation not too dissimilar to the one the men’s volleyball team found itself in a week prior.
Mission accomplished.
The UCLA Bruins used a 4th quarter flurry to pull away from the Bears, scoring three times in the final quarter to pull away for a 7-4 victory. The win not only gave the Bruins national championship #123, but represents their 12th national title overall and 8th NCAA title. The win means the Bruins finished the year with a perfect 26-0 record on the season, the first time the feat has been achieved since Southern Cal did so in 2016, and represents the first UCLA national championship in women’s water polo since 2009, which was the last of five championships in a row for the Bruins. This is the first championship in four attempts for the Bruins since that last title, and continues the streak of the national championship going to one of UCLA, Southern Cal, and Stanford every year.
The game started differently than the one these two teams played for the MPSF Championship a few weeks prior. In that game, UCLA raced out to an early 4-1 lead that they would never relinquish. This time, UC Berkeley came out more prepared, going blow for blow with the Bruins in the early going. Senior Anneliese Miller scored a tying goal in the dying moments of the first quarter to make things 1-1, and while freshman Natasha Kieckhafer would soon make things 2-1, the Golden Bears would soon tie things up to make it 2-2 at the halftime break.
From there, UCLA set out to establish itself. Sophomore Genoa Rossi scored early in the third quarter to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead, and while UC Berkeley would equalize later in the period, it was freshman Panni Szegedi’s goal with 43 seconds left in the quarter that would give the Bruins a lead for good. The Bruins would extend the lead in the 4th quarter with a flurry of offense, with Szegedi scoring a second goal and Taylor Smith adding a goal to give the Bruins a 6-3 lead, and while the Golden Bears would score one more goal in the dying minutes of the game, Szegedi would make it a hat trick with one final goal on an empty net with 23 seconds left to put the game away for good.
Freshman Lauren Steele was an absolute wall for the Bruins in goal, finishing with 17 saves on the night and holding the Bears to only four goals in their home pool. The win is the first for head coach Adam Wright.
Go Bruins! Congrats on winning NC #123!
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Congrats to Coach Wright and his outstanding team. What an incredible season! GO BRUINS!!
(and from a great line on twitter - Wonder if the Regents will make UCLA give a portion of the trophy to Cal?)
It feels like the tides have turned as UCLA is getting back to winning championships in multiple sports, and basketball and football have great renewed energy. Softball has a good chance to win it all as well!
All and all, we have a lot to be excited about and although it's always amazing to be an alum (2 times), it's also pretty awesome to be a Bruin fan! 💙💛