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A day after capturing the Big West title, the University of Hawaii water polo team was paired with USC in a first-round match at the NCAA championship on May 8 at Stanford, Calif.
The 10-team National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship bracket was announced on Monday. The Rainbow Wahine (18-8) earned an automatic berth with their 9-8 win over UC Irvine in overtime at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex on Sunday in the Big West tournament final.
"To be able to come back, that gives a team confidence, and when a team is playing with confidence their level of play escalates," UH coach Maureen Cole said. "We’re pretty confident. We have a lot of work to do between now and May 8, but we’ll be excited at the opportunity."
UH and USC met on March 20 at DKAC, with the Trojans pulling away to a 10-1 win. USC (22-5) went on to finish third in the MPSF regular-season standings and placed fourth in the conference tournament. The rematch is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Hawaii time on May 8.
"I think we’ll be a different team than the team that showed up to play them in our home pool, and I think they will too," Cole said.
UC Irvine, the Big West regular-season champion, was given an at-large berth and will face California in the first round.
The tournament field will be finalized on Saturday with two play-in games. UC San Diego faces Whittier for the right to take on MPSF champion UCLA. Princeton plays Wagner, with the winner facing defending national champion Stanford in the first round of the three-day tournament.
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