NCAA D1 men's water polo and women's soccer championships

The GIST: Hardware hoisting season continues with two trophies up for grabs within 24 hours. Men’s water polo anointed its national champs last night, while the Women’s College Cup final kicks off tonight at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

🤽 Men’s water polo: It was a rematch of last year’s title game after the defending champ No. 2 Cal Golden Bears and No. 1 USC Trojans both (egg)beat their way through Saturday’s semifinals.

• And the Bears, in classic water-sport fashion, washed, rinsed, and repeated last year’s performance, narrowly taking down the Trojans 13–12…the exact score from 2021. Do you get déjà vu?

• Led by junior center Nikolaos Papanikolaou’s (pronounced pah-pah-neek-oh-l’OW) seven goals, the Bears overcame a 12–8 deficit by scoring five unanswered goals in the last six minutes of play. Sheesh.

⚽️ Women’s soccer: Friday’s Women’s College Cup semis did not disappoint. The No. 2 UNC Tar Heels narrowly took down their ACC foes, the No. 1 Florida State Seminoles, 3–2, dashing the defending champ’s back-to-back title hopes in the process.

• In the second semi, No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide’s magical season ended with a 3–0 loss to the dominant No. 1 UCLA Bruins. Underdog Bama didn’t capitalize on their chances while UCLA had no problem ripping through the Tide’s defense.

• The Bruins hope to repeat September’s regular season win over the Tar Heels in tonight’s final, but if there’s any championship dynasty UNC knows how to win, it’s this one. Tune in to see who goes kicking, and who goes screaming.