UCLA Outlasts Cal for NCAA Women’s Crown; First of Many Bruin Titles?

The NCAA crowned a new women’s water polo champion Sunday night. After a fifteen year drought, UCLA captured the title, the program’s eighth, and the first women’s title for Head Coach Adam Wright, who has also won four times with the Bruin men. 

In beating host Cal 7-4 in their home pool at Spieker Aquatics Complex, the Bruins became only the fifth women’s team to complete a perfect season, Their 26-0 record compares favorably with UCLA squads from 2005 and 2089, coached by Adam Krikorian, and Jovan Vavic’s USC teams of 2004 and 2016.

There are a lot of Bruins ready to win again next year. Photo: UCLA Athletics

In holding the Golden Bears to their lowest goal total of the season, the Bruins, behind sensational freshman goalie Lauren Steele, proved to be not only the better team, but to be better on defense than Cal and All-American goalie Isabel Williams. The Maryland-born Williams, who this year set the all-time saves record at Cal with 885, could not prevent a UCLA onslaught that saw the visitors tally three straight times in the third and fourth quarters, providing the visitors a three-goal cushion that proved insurmountable. 

Leading the way in scoring for the Bruins were freshman Panni Szegedi, who registered a hat trick, and single goals from Natasha Kieckhafer, Anneliese Miller, Genoa Rossi and Taylor Smith. Cal was led in scoring by Maddie DeMattia’s two goals and single scores from Maryn Dempsey and Rozanne Voorvelt.

Coralie Simmons Photo: Cal Athletics

Steele registered 17 saves as she anchored a stout Bruin defense that prevented any hole set opportunities while limiting the Golden Bears to 2 goals in four chances with the man advantage. Williams capped her brilliant career in Berkeley with 11 saves while allowing only two scores in nine opportunities when the Bruins were a man up. 

In her first NCAA final as a coach after winning twice as a player, Coralie Simmons achieved distinction as the first woman to ever lead a team in an NCAA water polo final. A UCLA great, Simmons, was not only a member of the first national championship winner in Westwood but in 2000 was on the roster of the first-ever US women’s team to qualify for the Olympics.

Adam Wright’s first of perhaps many women’s titles

While Simmons was experiencing her first NCAA final as a coach, Wright was partaking in his twelfth national championship, including eight times as the Bruin men’s coach and now two leading the UCLA women. It’s his first women’s win after getting blown out in 2021 by USC and comes six months after dropping the men’s final to Cal by a score of 13-11. The fall season holds similarities to his women’s 2024 campaign; a burst of success out of the gate and an undefeated streak that reached 24 until a 13-9 loss to USC unraveled an undefeated campaign.

To add insult to injury, the Bruins lost to the Golden Bears in the MPSF final and then again in the NCAA title match. That reality likely steeled the long-time UCLA alum—he lettered in his four years in Westwood and won titles as a player in 1999 and 2000—to see this season through to perfection.

[Coach Adam Wright Guiding Weighs in on Guiding UCLA’s Powerful Water Polo Programs]

Anna Pearson. Photo: UCLA Athletics

Two of the Bruin starters in the final were freshmen, two were sophomores, and there was one each of the following: a junior, a senior and a graduate student. Of the freshmen, Szegedi was fantastic on offense (39 goals; tied for the team lead) while getting familiar with Wright’s defensive schemes. Steele may have been the season’s biggest surprise and most valuable Bruin; she garnered MVP honors at the MPSF Championship and finished with 268 saves—good for fourth on UCLA’s single season list—starting all 26 matches while posting a sparkling 6.72 goals against average.

Center Anna Pearson, who was neutralized on Sunday by a collapsing Cal defense, was spectacular in her sophomore season, also scoring 39 goals but, more importantly, drawing an average of three exclusions a game.

Smith, the other sophomore who has gained Wright’s trust, registered 35 goals this year after hitting for 30 as a freshman. Molly Renner scored 22 and will return for her senior year; only senior Malia Allen and graduate student Brooke Doten won’t be returning next year if and when the Bruins defend their title.

UCLA’s youth is represented by 18 underclassmen—11 freshmen and seven sophomores—on the 2024 squad. Assuming they all stay and develop, the Bruins should be a title threat for at least the next few years.