Cal Women's Water Polo: Bears' Season Ends After 9-7 Loss to USC in NCAA Semifinals

Cal past four appearances in the NCAAs were extinguished one step shy of the finals.

The Cal women’s water polo season once again ended one victory shy of an appearance in the national championship game.

The third-seeded Bears lost 9-7 to No. 2 USC on Saturday in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Cal returned to the NCAAs for the first time since 2019 after the 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic and the Bears failed to earn a bid in 2021.

But as was the case in 2017, ’18 and ’19, Cal (17-6) came up just short of reaching the season’s final day, falling in the tournament semifinals.

Instead, the Trojans (20-3) will face top-seeded Stanford (24-2) in Sunday’s title match. The Cardinal beat No. 4 seed UCLA 10-7 in its semifinal game.

The Bears played all 23 games on their schedule this season against nationally ranked opponents, and USC was the only one they couldn’t beat at least once. USC was 3-0 against Cal, which was 17-3 against every other team on its schedule.

Cal, which defeated host Michigan 10-4 in Friday’s quarterfinals, is still striving to win its first NCAA championship in the sport. The Bears have advanced to the semifinals in all eight of their NCAA appearances, but haven’t proceeded any further since 2011, when they lost in the title game.

USC, which posted earlier wins over the Bears by margins of 13-7 and 10-8, built a 7-3 lead entering the final period on Saturday. That spread grew to 8-3 when Tilly Kearns scored with 6:41 to play.

The Bears then erupted for four goals in a span of less than 5 minutes, one each by Emma Wright, Cecily Turner, Rozanna Voorvelt and, with 43 seconds left, another by Turner.

But Cal never got closer than two goals and ran out of time.

Wright finished with three goals and an assist, her fourth straight outing with at least three. The senior, who played for Canada’s Olympic team last summer, wound up with 54 goals this season and 208 for her career, which ranks No. 4 in program history.

Sophomore Ruby Swadling had three steals, two assists and a goal. Junior All-MPSF goalkeeper Isabel Williams made 10 saves.

Cover photo of Cal's women on the pool deck by Dianna Oatridge, KLC fotos

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo