May 2, 2016
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State, the automatic qualifier out of the Golden Coast Conference, will face Wagner in the 2016 NCAA Championship. The two schools will face on Tuesday, May 10, at UC San Diego's Canyonview Pool in a play-in game for the right to advance to the championship bracket, which will be contested at Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles, May 13-15. Game time will be announced at a later date.
"It was a thrill to see our name come up on the bracket during the Selection Show," SDSU head coach Carin Crawford said. "We are excited to have a play-in game in our hometown against Wagner, which is a very good team. We have not played them this year so it should be an exciting match-up.
"We're really looking forward to having the opportunity to win the play-in game and move on to the eight-team field at UCLA," Crawford added. "This is my first conference championship as a head coach and it's a much different experience than waiting for your name to come up for an at-large bid. I can say this is a more thrilling and exciting way to make it to the NCAAs and it's great to be returning for the first time since 2008."
The Aztecs are back in the NCAA Championship for the first time since back-to-back trips in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, San Diego State won its first game before dropping its next two to finish in fourth place. A season later, SDSU reversed course by losing its opener and then won the next two games to come in fifth place.
San Diego State is making its third NCAA appearance as a result of winning its first-ever conference tournament in program history. The Aztecs, who won the Golden Coast regular-season title for the third straight year, defeated LMU in the semifinals of the GCC Championship this past weekend and then took down Pacific in the title game, 10-9, which took two sudden-victory periods. San Diego State became the first school in conference history to sweep both the regular-season and tournament championships.
SDSU finished the campaign with a 17-16 record, but was a flawless 7-0 in GCC action. The Aztecs' effort was their third consecutive unblemished conference performance after going 6-0 in the first two seasons of the Golden Coast.
San Diego State is led by three all-GCC first-team selections in Alyssa Diacono, Caroline Israels and Rachel Mitchell, an honorable mention choice in Taylor Gums and an all-GCC freshman performer in Hannah Carrillo. Tayla Walsh, Israels and Mitchell, meanwhile, all earned all-GCC tournament accolades with Mitchell collecting MVP honors.
The aforementioned group along with the rest of the Aztecs (17-16) enter NCAA action playing their best water polo of the season. San Diego State is 9-3 since March 31, with the three blemishes coming to top-11 squads.
Wagner, meanwhile, heads west after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship for the third straight season. The Seahawks (29-9; 12-0 MAAC) earned the league's automatic bid after defeating Marist in the title game, 8-5.