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Photo by: Amiee Sabado
Legacy Crown highlights Bulldogs' fall slate
11/5/2025 3:00:00 PM | Water Polo
FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State water polo team has announced its fall slate, consisting of two weekends of competition against some of the premier west coast programs. The Bulldogs will kick off the fall slate of scrimmages at UC Davis on Saturday Nov. 8 and at Cal on Sunday Nov. 9. Then the Bulldogs travel south for the Legacy Crown event on Nov. 15-16.
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At UC Davis on Saturday, the Bulldogs will face Pacific, Santa Clara and San Jose State.
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At Cal on Sunday, the 'Dogs take on Cal, UC Davis and Stanford.
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Headlining the fall competition is the Legacy Crown, a new women's water polo event that will celebrate women's water polo and people in the community who have helped foster growth, excellence, and opportunity. It will feature the nation's top collegiate teams, elite domestic clubs and USA Water Polo National Team Academy squads.
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"The men have had something like this for a decent amount of time and the women are hungry to have something similar," said Fresno State head coach Natalie Benson. "Something where you can play at a club level and get some preseason competition, and just play water polo a little bit more. Nothing gets you through the fall semester of the women's season like playing a little bit of water polo."
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Fresno State will be joined by Stanford, UCLA, USC, Cal, Hawai'i, Arizona State, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, LMU and UC Dan Diego – all NCAA tournament qualifying programs. Domestic club teams will be participating as well as USA Academy squads.
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All the action will take place at Orange Coast College and Costa Mesa High School, conveniently located across the street from each other. Admission will be FREE all weekend and all the matches will be live streamed on Overnght.com and the Overnght app. Live stats will be available at 6-8Sports.com. A full schedule of games will be available in the coming weeks.
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The winning team will receive the inaugural Legacy Crown championship trophy. Individual awards to honor top performers will include: MVP, Best Goalkeeper, Leading Scorer, Best Defensive Player and Rising Star.
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"We have something to play for," added Benson on the Legacy Crown. "It is not just scrimmages, it is a little bit more exciting. You get to travel down and you have a little bit better of a feel of what the season is going to be like. As a college coach, it is a good incentive for the athletes to train hard and give them a taste of what competition looks like so we can be more prepared for our season in the spring."
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Fresno State returns for its ninth season under Benson's leadership. The Bulldogs have won four Golden Coast Conference titles and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in those seasons. Entering the 2026 season, Fresno State looks to replace a plethora of offensive talent after graduating leading scorers and All-Americans Brooke Ochoa and Abbey Simshauser. The Bulldogs return Hailey Andress, who enters her senior season with 191 career goals. The Bulldogs also return young talent in Kira Anderson and Marit van der Kolk who contributed as youthful players a season ago.
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At UC Davis on Saturday, the Bulldogs will face Pacific, Santa Clara and San Jose State.
Â
At Cal on Sunday, the 'Dogs take on Cal, UC Davis and Stanford.
Â
Headlining the fall competition is the Legacy Crown, a new women's water polo event that will celebrate women's water polo and people in the community who have helped foster growth, excellence, and opportunity. It will feature the nation's top collegiate teams, elite domestic clubs and USA Water Polo National Team Academy squads.
Â
"The men have had something like this for a decent amount of time and the women are hungry to have something similar," said Fresno State head coach Natalie Benson. "Something where you can play at a club level and get some preseason competition, and just play water polo a little bit more. Nothing gets you through the fall semester of the women's season like playing a little bit of water polo."
Â
Fresno State will be joined by Stanford, UCLA, USC, Cal, Hawai'i, Arizona State, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, LMU and UC Dan Diego – all NCAA tournament qualifying programs. Domestic club teams will be participating as well as USA Academy squads.
Â
All the action will take place at Orange Coast College and Costa Mesa High School, conveniently located across the street from each other. Admission will be FREE all weekend and all the matches will be live streamed on Overnght.com and the Overnght app. Live stats will be available at 6-8Sports.com. A full schedule of games will be available in the coming weeks.
Â
The winning team will receive the inaugural Legacy Crown championship trophy. Individual awards to honor top performers will include: MVP, Best Goalkeeper, Leading Scorer, Best Defensive Player and Rising Star.
Â
"We have something to play for," added Benson on the Legacy Crown. "It is not just scrimmages, it is a little bit more exciting. You get to travel down and you have a little bit better of a feel of what the season is going to be like. As a college coach, it is a good incentive for the athletes to train hard and give them a taste of what competition looks like so we can be more prepared for our season in the spring."
Â
Fresno State returns for its ninth season under Benson's leadership. The Bulldogs have won four Golden Coast Conference titles and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in those seasons. Entering the 2026 season, Fresno State looks to replace a plethora of offensive talent after graduating leading scorers and All-Americans Brooke Ochoa and Abbey Simshauser. The Bulldogs return Hailey Andress, who enters her senior season with 191 career goals. The Bulldogs also return young talent in Kira Anderson and Marit van der Kolk who contributed as youthful players a season ago.
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