LA JOLLA — Sinia Plotz scored to begin each half and Anna Reed finished with a career-high 14 saves to lead the USC women’s water polo team to a 10-9 victory over Cal on Sunday night in the NCAA championship match at UC San Diego’s Canyonview Aquatic Center.
It is USC’s eighth national championship – its seventh since the NCAA began sanctioning the sport – but its first since 2021. It’s the first title for head coach Casey Moon, who is in his second season leading the Trojans.
Ava Stryker and Emily Ausmus also had two goals each for USC (25-3), while Meghan McAninch, Ava Knepper, Rachel Gazzaniga and Morgan Netherton each scored one. Reed added three steals.
Holly Dunn scored on a power play with 23 seconds left in the first quarter to pull fourth-seeded Cal (16-8) even, but Stryker answered with seven seconds remaining and third-seeded USC took a 3-2 lead.
Ausmus scored for a two-goal lead and Stryker added her second goal to give the Trojans a 6-3 advantage with 3:15 left before halftime. Estzer Varro answered with a goal eight seconds later for the Golden Bears and another one with 2:07 left to cut the margin to 6-5.
Ausmus found the net with eight seconds left for USC, but Dunn scored on a shot just before the buzzer to get Cal within 7-6 at the break.
Plotz scored to begin the second half, giving USC another two-goal lead, but Varro scored for the third time and Cal trailed 8-7.
McAninch scored on a power play midway through the third quarter for a 9-7 lead. Julianne Snyder cut into the deficit with 48.7 seconds left and the Golden Bears saw a potential game-tying shot by Dunn hit the crossbar. Talia Fonseca had one of her 10 saves on a shot by USC’s Alma Yaacobi at the buzzer, and Cal trailed 9-8 heading to the final period.
Gazzaniga scored two minutes into the fourth to again give USC a two-goal lead. Despoina Drakotou scored the final goal of the match on a 5-meter penalty shot after an exclusion on Reed with 5:23 remaining. Reed had a save on an earlier penalty shot.
Ausmus was named the tournament MVP after totaling 15 goals and six assists across the NCAA Tournament. Reed and Stryker joined her on the all-tournament first team, while Gazzaniga was named to the second team.
Varro scored three goals to lead Cal, while Dunn and Drakotou each had two. Kate Meyer and Snyder each finished with one.
Cal came in averaging 14 goals per game, but the Golden Bears were held below 10 goals for just the fourth time this season. USC held Abbi Magee and Julia Bonaguidi, two of Cal’s most consistent contributors this season, scoreless.
USC defeated Loyola Marymount, 10-5, in a quarterfinal on Friday, then advanced to the final with an 11-10 victory over second-seeded UCLA (21-5) in a semifinal on Saturday.
The Golden Bears, looking for their first NCAA title, knocked off Hawaii, 15-10, in a quarterfinal before taking out top-seeded defending champion Stanford, 13-11, in the semifinals to advance to their second final in three seasons.
Cal lost to UCLA, 7-4, in the 2024 final and fell to Stanford, 9-5, in the 2011 championship match.
