​​By Clark Burckle

Some of the best women's water polo teams and players in the country are set to battle for the MPSF Championship at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center in Westwood, CA, over the course of three days, beginning on Friday, April 28.

This is the last stop before the NCAA championship on May 12-14 in Indianapolis, and the MPSF champion gets an automatic bid and the top seed to the tournament. The MPSF is loaded this season, with each of the top five teams in the conference standings also ranked in the top five in the NCAA. 



While it can be argued that the MPSF tournament is actually more competitive than the NCAA championship, the ultimate goal, of course, is to win NCAAs at the end of the season.

Current national rankings, April 19:

(Tournament seed in parentheses)
1.) UCLA (1)
2.) Stanford (2)
3.) USC (3)
4.) ASU (4)
5.) Cal Berkeley (5)

As you can see, it's tight. The top three teams should all make the NCAA tournament, so they are really fighting for pride and momentum this weekend in Berkeley. Additionally, the Arizona State and Cal matchup in round one is significant -- the winner of which will likely make the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid.

The host UCLA Bruins have been on a tear recently, defeating both USC (11-7) and Stanford (10-9) to take over the No. 1 spot in the rankings -- the first team other than Cardinal or Trojans to be ranked No. 1 since week four of this season. It's safe to say there isn't a clear favorite this weekend, but we can expect to see quite a duel at the Spieker Aquatics Center come Sunday's championship game at 2:30 PM PST.

One interesting point to remember is how stacked the MPSF conference is with current U.S. national team and Olympic team members. The most will be seen on UCLA's roster, which has four active players who are currently on the national team, two of whom represented the United States at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

UCLA U.S. National Team Athletes

Maddi Musselman (2016 Olympic gold medalist)
Rachel Fattal (2016 Olympic gold medalist)
Kodi Hall
Alys Williams

Stanford has three active players who are currently on the national team, two of whom represented the United States at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

Stanford U.S. National Team Athletes

Maggie Steffens (2012, 2016 Olympic gold medalist & tournament MVP)
Mackenzie Fischer (2016 Olympic gold medalist)
Gabby Stone

There are also multiple Olympians from foreign countries who are on the UCLA and Cal squads.

The heart of the action will take place in the second- and final-round games on Saturday and Sunday. Tune in for first-round action on Friday, April 28, starting at 11 AM PST. Action resumes on both Saturday and Sunday at 11 AM PST.

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