INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee announced the nine teams vying for the 2025 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship on Monday. Ninth-ranked LMU (20-11), who won both the GCC regular season title and claimed their third tournament title on Sunday, will face second-seed UCLA (19-5) in game three on Friday, May 9.

All told, seven teams have been placed in the bracket; the remaining two teams will compete for the last berth in the bracket via an opening-round game.

The Lions claimed their third GCC tournament title with a 14-12 win over Fresno State on Sunday in the 2025 Golden Coast Conference Championship at their home pool. It is the Lions third tournament title, adding to the titles they won in 2014 and 2015. It was the first two seasons of the GCC and did not come with an automatic bid. The Lions trip to the NCAA touranment will be their first since 2012 and 10th overall.

The championship, hosted by Indiana Sports Corp and Indiana, will have the opening round game played on May 7 with the championship following May 9-11. The first round, semifinal and championship games will be played at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. The 2025 championship will be an eight-team, single-elimination tournament.

In the opening-round game, Wagner (21-8) will play McKendree (21-7), with the winner advancing to the championship bracket to play Stanford (22-1) in Game 1. Rounding out the bracket will be Hawaii (21-4) taking on California (19-5) in Game 2,  and Southern California (27-4) facing Harvard (26-6) in Game 4. Please reference the bracket for all game times.

Conferences receiving automatic qualification include the Big West Conference, Collegiate Water Polo Association, Golden Coast Conference, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining three teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions.

The first round and semifinal games will be streamed on ncaa.com. The national championship game will take place on May 11 at noon ET on ESPNU.

For more information about the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship and the 2025 championship bracket, log on to ncaa.com.