The Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens have been tabbed to win a seventh consecutive SCIAC title according to the 2026 SCIAC Women’s Water Polo Preseason Poll, as voted by the league’s head coaches.
Ranked 24th in the CWPA Varsity Top 25 Poll, the four-time USA Water Polo national champion Sagehens and reigning Coaching Staff of the Year winner
Alex Rodriguez welcome back Offensive Athlete of the Year
Brienz Lang along with fellow First Team All-SCIAC selection
Mia Amberger. Lang paced the league-leading offense with 24 goals along with nine assists in conference play while Amberger contributed 14 goals and eight assists with center
Paityn Richardson also notching 19 goals and four assists.
Ranked second in Division III entering the season, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges picked up the other two first-place votes in the poll after nearly upsetting the Sagehens for last spring’s national title in a
9-8 nail-biter.
Grace Clark and
Valerie Wraith have made the All-SCIAC First Team in all five combined chances while a third First Teamer,
Isabel Del Villar, also returns alongside Second Team choice
Caitlin Munoz. That quartet accounted for 59 of the Athenas’ 152 goals and 49 of 87 assists in conference play.
Program record-holder
Zoey Francis is back in goal for Chapman University behind fellow Second Team All-SCIAC pick
Kendall Pappan, who is already two-for-two in a career earning All-Conference nods. Francis racked up a conference-best 274 saves on a .533 percentage while Pappan takes over as the primary offensive outlet after collecting 57 goals and 46 assists with 69 drawn exclusions in all games last season.
California Lutheran University’s
Hudson Geier and
Chloe Gardhouse are the top offensive names back for the Regals along with goalkeeper
Izzy de Souza. Geier notched 92 points, including 64 assists, in all games while Gardhouse ranked fourth on the team with 50 points but led the way on the defensive end of the pool with 45 steals.
Brooklyn Young is one of the top returners for the University of La Verne after ranking third in points (53) with 26 drawn exclusions ranking behind only the 36 by
Nancy Trinh, whose brother
Peter was a four-time All-SCIAC pick in men’s water polo.
Occidental College’s
Tori Carlson totaled 37 goals, 11 assists, 27 drawn exclusions and 35 steals as a sophomore while Whittier College welcomes back the duo of
Kayla Arias (47 goals, 49 drawn exclusions) and
Alexandra Haluska (54 points on 36 goals, 18 assists).
The University of Redlands may lean on
Lucia Notaro, who managed a team-high tying 24 drawn exclusions with 23 steals, 17 goals and 11 assists, though
Aubree Nabors will be moving back to center defender full-time after covering more than half the season in goal. Caltech’s Second Team All-SCIAC standout
Maya Dickson (55 goals, 21 assists) returns with the rest of the Beavers’ dynamic quartet that also includes
Mia Mutadich (52 goals, 12 assists),
Madelyn Gilbert and
Yolotzin Subdias (98 combined drawn exclusions).
Teams have begun early-season play against majority Division I opposition but will round into the bulk of the schedule by Friday, Feb. 6 with Pomona-Pitzer and Whittier kicking off the SCIAC slate on a busy weekend.
2026 SCIAC Women’s Water Polo Preseason Poll
1. Pomona-Pitzer, 79 points (7 first-place votes)
2. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 74 pts (2)
3. Chapman, 59 pts
4. California Lutheran, 58 pts
5. La Verne, 38 pts
6. Occidental, 35 pts
7. Whittier, 25 pts
8. Redlands, 22 pts
9. Caltech, 15 pts
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