For the fourth time in program history, and for the first time since a three-peat from 2017-19, Macalester water polo are champions of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA).
With the win, they qualified for the USA Water Polo Division III Collegiate National Championships in California over the weekend of April 24. The championship sees the two conference finalists from the CWPA and Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), the only two conferences with the sport at the DIII level. The final four is to be hosted by the winner of the SCIAC title on April 16. Given that Pomona-Pitzer are defending a fourth straight national title, it will likely be in their home waters.
Macalester headed to Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., this past weekend for the CWPA tournament with one goal in mind: get back to the top. The Scots water polo team has long been a program powerhouse, earning three (now four) conference titles in the last 10 years. Only two other Macalester teams have won their conference in that span: men’s soccer and baseball.
Still, there’s no complacency in Riley Pool. “There was definitely that hunger to get to where we were this year based off of the disappointment from last year,” head coach Scott Reed said.
The Augustana College Vikings entered the CWPA in 2022 and have won it each year since, heisting the Scots’ bragging rights to the most recent three-peat. Since their entry, the Scots hadn’t been able to keep pace, and despite putting together competitive teams, they remained a step below the conference elite. Mac has lost in the semifinals for the past four seasons, and COVID-19 canceled the two tourneys before that.
The Scots were 12-5 overall and 7-1 in conference coming into the tournament, winners of four straight. The only loss came at the hands of Augustana College on March 14. It was 7-5, a close game, but the Scots knew they could compete with the best this time around.
The two-seed Scots began championship weekend against the Connecticut College Camels, the seventh seed. The first half was back and forth, but the Scots went into the break with a slim 5-4 lead. However, in classic Macalester fashion, they immediately started to pull away in the second half. Attacker Alana Nadolski ’26 scored two quick goals, and the Scots never looked back. They allowed only two goals in the second half and took the win with a score of 11-6 to move on to the semifinals.
Attacker Reese Winegar ’29 noted that succeeding under pressure has been a strength of the team this season, often made necessary by slow starts. “We definitely struggled at the start of the season to start our games off strong. We would go into it slow,” Winegar said.
That pressure was evident throughout the season: The Scots won three of their eight conference matchups by one point. It’s no surprise that phenomenon reared its head again in the playoffs.
The next day, the Scots faced off against sixth-seeded Grove City College for a chance to go to the championship. With everything that was on the line, nerves may have been a factor early in a low-scoring first half. This continued in the third quarter, and the score was 4-3 in favor of Macalester as the final frame began. As they did all season, the Scots turned into a different team in the fourth quarter: they more than doubled their score while keeping up their stingy defense. Utility Anna Gaisser ’28 added two late goals, and the Scots won 10-4.
Across the bracket, Carthage College barely beat the aforementioned powerhouse Augustana College in the semifinals to head to the championship against the Scots. For the first time since AC joined the conference, the path to a title wouldn’t go through the Vikings.
Before the final, Macalester held an astounding 23-game win streak against Carthage, one that the Firebirds were desperate to break. But the Scots were ready.
“We took things one game at a time,” Reed said. “We tried building on each game to make ourselves better, which kept that momentum going.”
Center Kendall Strauss ’26 was the spark in getting games started as the season went on, providing the wakeup calls in the Scots’ tightly contested conference schedule. Fittingly, it was Strauss who opened the scoring for the Scots less than three minutes into the championship game. The first three quarters were neck and neck, and the teams were knotted up at 8 headed into the fourth. Goalie Jayden Kratt ’26 was making save after save to keep the Scots in the match. In the final period, utility Mak Kratz ’28 and his twin Myles Kratz ’28 highlighted a barrage of penalties from Carthage players as a turning point in the match. Utility Lorelei Bell ’26 scored her fourth goal of the match off a penalty with 6:10 left, and the Scots never gave back the lead. The fourth quarter was identical to Macalester’s semifinal match, as the Scots outscored Carthage 6-1. The Scots captured the championship by a score of 14-9.
“Even when times were rough in terms of being tired and sore and all that good stuff, they just stayed focused throughout, and I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Reed said. “Everyone was contributing…I think that’s what made us truly successful.”
Tournament MVP Jess Palmer-Sammons ’26 recounted the feeling post-win: “Amazing. Like Cloud Nine,” she said. “It felt like [anything] the other team did, we kept pushing through no matter what … we never let up on the gas.”
Palmer-Sammons scored three times in the championship game and tacked on three assists for a season-high six points alongside a season high in steals with two. Her six goals and eleven points over the weekend made her a lock for MVP.
Winegar was the Scots’ other award winner, taking home Rookie of the Tournament honors. She racked up five goals and four exclusions over the three games.
“We were all in the mindset of ‘we want this, we just need to get it done.’ And that’s what we did,” Winegar said.
Coach Reed praised her cool head and veteran poise despite the high stakes: “Typically, when you get into these types of situations, it can be a little bit stressful and unnerving, but [Winegar] kept herself grounded and did everything that she was supposed to do,” he said.
It was a cornerstone win for the players and the program. But as the stage gets bigger, the team is looking higher. After the CWPA ‘ship, only one prize remains for the Scots.
“We are focused on national championshi
ps now,” Reed said. “We’re just going to get right back to our routine, build up our conditioning again, and when we know who we’re playing, we’ll start figuring out what we need to do.”
