The 2001 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was the first annual tournament to determine the national championship of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

women's collegiate

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

. The single elimination tournament was played at the Avery Aquatic Center in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University, after which it was named. The CDP's population was 21,150 at the United States Census, ...

during May 2001.

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

defeated

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

in the final, 5–4, to win their first NCAA championship. The Bruins (19–4) were coached by

Adam Krikorian Adam Krikorian (born July 22, 1974) is an American water polo coach and the head coach of the United States women's national water polo team. He coached the team to gold medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012 Olympic Games, 2016 Summer Olympics ...

. Krikorian also won a

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

as the coach of UCLA's men's water polo team during the same 2000–01 season. The leading scorer for the tournament was Kelly Heuchan, from

, with 4 goals. First and second ''All Tournament Teams'' were also named, with seven players comprising the former (including the tournament's ''Most Outstanding Player'',

Coralie Simmons Coralie Denise Simmons (born March 1, 1977) is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the Water Polo at the 2000 Summer Olympics, 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2001, she won the Peter J. Cutino Award, presented annually to the top ...

from UCLA) and six for the latter.

Qualification

Since there has only ever been one single national championship for women's water polo, all

women's water polo programs (whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of 4 teams were invited to contest this championship.

Tournament bracket

*Site: Avery Aquatic Center,

All tournament teams

First Team

, UCLA (Most Outstanding Player) * Robin Beauregard, UCLA * Kelly Heuchan, UCLA * Jackie Frank, Stanford * Ellen Estes, Stanford *

Brenda Villa Brenda Villa (born April 18, 1980) is an American accomplished water polo player. She is the most decorated athlete in the world of women’s water polo. Villa was named Female Water Polo Player of the Decade for 2000-2009 by the FINA Aquatics Wo ...

, Stanford * Lucy Windes, Loyola Marymount

Second Team

* Margie Dingeldein, Stanford * Jamie Hipp, UCLA * Elaine Zivich, UCLA * Jamie Kroeze, Loyola Marymount * Jenny Lamb, UCLA * Kristin Guerin, UCLA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ncaa Women's Water Polo Championship NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship 2001 in sports in California May 2001 sports events in the United States