Cal Poly’s women’s water polo team successfully defended their national title by winning the water polo collegiate club championships for the second straight season with a 6-4 victory over Notre Dame in the national championship game on May 3 at the UC Davis Schaal Aquatic Center.
“We take it very seriously, always been known as a powerhouse, this is our fifth national championship (in eight years,)” environmental and protection management senior Greta Carroll said.
The women’s water polo team, one of the most dominant clubs at Cal Poly, starts their season as soon as they get back from winter break and go through the end of April.
“We’re gone 80 percent of the weekends that we have,” head coach Dirk Camilli said. “We leave (most) Friday mornings.”
Their weekly schedule involves practice every night from 6:30 to 9 and then two individual swimming sessions a week to make sure they stay in shape for their hectic schedule in what Camilli calls “one of the toughest leagues in the nation.”
“We go to tournaments down south, up north, UC Davis, San Jose and we go to a tournament in Ohio.” Carroll said. “And then nationals changes (location) every year.”
The national tournament is the culmination of the club season and is a dream only realized by a few teams. With so few teams playing out of their league due to travel constraints, the seeding of the tournament is based off the results from last year. After clinching a birth by winning at regionals, Cal Poly, still carrying the target of defending champs on their back, was awarded the No. 1 overall seed.
Also going against Cal Poly was the curse of the number one ranking. With seeds determined by the results from last year the teams would gun for the No. 1 ranked team not just the No. 1 seed. The players were all aware of the fact that it had been a long time since the team ranked No.1 won the tournament.
“We were the first team ever to be ranked No.1 coming into (the tournament) and win the national title.” Camilli said. “That was the biggest thing…we were ranked No. 1 the whole season except for two weeks.”
Despite the supposed curse, the team still had confidence in its chances to be victorious.
“Going into the tournament I was very confident in our team,” Carroll said, “All year we had been playing for this tournament; we wanted to go in seeded first we wanted to be first in the polls.”
Cal Poly made quick work of most of their tournament opponents en route to the championship. They beat Chico State 13-5 in the tournament’s first round. After dispatching Michigan 9-7 in the next round, they trounced Penn 14-4 in the semifinal.
With successfully completing their title defense the team already has its focus on next year.
“What’s going to be important for us is to stay humble and make sure we keep working hard for this and not take anything for granted.” biomedical engineering sophomore and MVP of the tournament Sarah Ur said.
“Its kind of a legacy we’re building right now.”