Water Polo

Paris Olympics: Jenna Flynn Scores Four as U.S. Women’s Water Polo Opens with Win Jenna Flynn scored four times as the U.S. women’s water polo team began its defense of gold at the Paris Olympics with a 15-6 win over Greece. The U.S. led 9-2 at half and never looked back. It used 11 saves over three...

Growth Mindset Has Led Max Irving to Water Polo Stardom One wakeup call occasioned another for Max Irving. It was 2017, and Irving’s star was rising fast. He’d gone from a redshirt season at UCLA in 2013 to an All-American. That June brought his first U.S. national team call—in the FINA Intercontine...

USA Water Polo Selecting Jamie Davis, of USA Volleyball, as New CEO For just the second time in two decades, USA Water Polo, the national governing body for the sport in the United States, is hiring a new CEO. After 18 years—currently the longest tenure of any NGB leader in the country—Chris Ramsey ...

Ten of 13 from Tokyo return for Paris U.S. Men’s Water Polo Team Ten of the 13 players who were on the roster for the Tokyo Olympics are back for Paris’s U.S. men’s water polo team, it was announced Tuesday. Team captain Ben Hallock is among the holdovers from the team that finished sixth in Tokyo. ...

Where Did They Go?  The Disappearance of the Elite Water Polo/Swimming Dual-Sport Athlete By Russ Hafferkamp and Jeff Moulton In Part I of this article (The Century of the Elite Water Polo/Swimming Dual-Sport Athlete (swimmingworldmagazine.com), we showed that the United States produced an impressiv...

As U.S. Women's Water Polo Seeks Another Gold, Change is Part of the Game A quick scan of the U.S. Olympic Women's Water Polo Team roster for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is disorienting. Not only is Makenzie Fischer not among the final group announced last week; her sister Aria is not listed eit...

Cal Sweeps Cutino Awards: Nikolaos Papanikolaou, Isabel Williams Top Collegiate Water Polo Athletes The Olympic Club in downtown San Francisco turned into a hometown hootenanny as the local Cal Golden Bears swept the awards for the best male and female water polo players in collegiate play.  In capt...

Team USA Announces Veteran-Laden Squad for Paris Water Polo Four-Peat Bid Team USA on Thursday unveiled its 13-member women’s water polo team for the Paris Olympics, a group that is looking for its fourth straight Olympic title. The team was announced at a press conference at Republique in Los Angel...

A Look at the Cutino Finalists For College Water Polo Players of the Year The 2023-24 Cutino Award finalists for the top collegiate men and women water polo athletes in America are in. Like the NCAA men’s and women’s finals, this year’s Cutino prospects are a replay of Cal versus UCLA matchups with ...

Hawaii’s Bia Mantellato Dias Among Women’s Cutino Award Finalists Hawaii’s Bia Mantellato Dias was among the three finalists named for the women’s Peter J. Cutino Award by USA Water Polo on Tuesday. Mantellato Dias is joined by a pair of goalies, California’s Isabel Williams and Lauren Steele of UCL...

The Century of the Elite Water Polo/Swimming Dual-Sport Athlete By Jeff Moulton and Russ Hafferkamp In the 20th century, it was not uncommon for American male athletes to excel in both water polo and swimming.  Indeed, several of the top ten American male swimmers were excellent water polo players a...

The UCLA women's water polo team completed a perfect season and claimed the NCAA Championship on Sunday at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The top-ranked Bruins defeated No. 3 Cal 7-4 in the finals to finish the season 26-0 and earn its eighth NCAA title in program history, the first under coach Adam Wrig...

Taylor Swift Show Gives U.S. Women's Water Polo a Sneak Peek of Paris Olympics Venue What happens when you put Paris, the U.S. national women’s water polo team and mega pop superstar Taylor Swift together? A night to remember for all and perhaps a precursor to what may be Olympic history. Earlier th...

It’s the gap week before NCAAs; only nine collegiate women’s water polo teams will continue their seasons next weekend at Cal’s Spieker Aquatics Complex. Those teams either won one of six conference tournaments or captured the three at-large berths put out by the NCAA selectors.  To examine the succ...

Flavor Flav Pledges Support to US Women's Water Polo team Hip hop artist Flavor Flav has pledged his support for the U.S. Women's Water Polo Team. "The US Women's Waterpolo team has won the GOLD MEDAL THREE OLYMPICS IN A ROW," Flav wrote on X. "These women should not have to be working 2-3 side jobs...

It’s on! Competition for the 2024 NCAA Women’s Championship opens May 9, with all matches to be held at Spieker Aquatics Center at the University of California, Berkeley. On Monday all nine spots for NCAAs were confirmed after months of fierce competition.  Six berths were decided by last weekend’s ...

Freshman Goalie Lauren Steele Has Had Immediate Impact for Top-Ranked UCLA Women's Water Polo Reading through the women’s water polo stat sheet from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, few UCLA players’ names appear. Not in the lists for goals or assists or points, stats you might assume tell a ...

Princeton Rallies for 2024 CWPA Women’s Water Polo Title On Houlahan’s Last-Minute Goal With a 10-9 win over Michigan yesterday at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool, Princeton women’s water polo captured their second-straight Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) title and their sixth title in program hist...

Cal’s Nikolaos Papanikolaou a Finalist for Cutino Award, Looking for Third Win Cal’s Nikolaos Papanikolaou was named one of three finalists for the men’s Peter J. Cutino Award, released Monday by the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Papanikolaou is joined by Princeton’s Roko Pozaric and Rafael Real Ve...

As NCAA Women's Water Polo Tourney Nears, There's Jockeying For Postseason Momentum Is it possible that one of the Big Four does not qualify for this year’s NCAA Women’s Tournament? It happened in 2016 when Cal didn’t make the cut. Barring a major upset—Hawai’i losing early in the Big West tournamen...