The NCAA women's water polo championship is the annual tournament hosted by the NCAA to determine the team national champion of women's collegiate water polo among its members in the United States, held each year since 2001.

Stanford has been the most successful program, with 9 championships; UCLA has the second most (8), followed by USC (6).

One of these three California schools has won the championship every year since the tournament began in 2001.

[2] While the tournament often includes teams from around the country, most programs are located within the state of California, and no school from outside California has ever surpassed third place or participated in the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship game.

Indeed, only twice has a school other than Stanford, UCLA, or USC participated in the championship game: Loyola Marymount who lost to USC in 2004 and California (the other California-based Pac-12 school) who lost to Stanford in 2011.

Some teams compete at Division III, either as members of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or as an independent.

Teams qualify by either winning their respective conference tournament or receiving one of the few at large bids available.

The code in each cell represents the furthest the team made it in the respective tournament: The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 8–13, 2018 at the USC Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Los Angeles, California.

Conference champions from the Big West, CWPA, Golden Coast Conference, MAAC, MPSF, SCIAC and WWPA are represented with the seven automatic bids.

They were joined by three at-large teams, with play-in games ahead of the tournament.

2 Stanford 5-4 The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 12–14, 2017 at the IU Natatorium; Indianapolis, IN.

Conference champions from the Big West, CWPA, Golden Coast Conference, MAAC, MPSF, SCIAC and WWPA are represented with the seven automatic bids.

They are joined by three at-large teams, with play-in games ahead of the tournament.

[4] The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 13–15, 2016 with UCLA, Los Angeles hosting.

Conference champions from the Big West, CWPA, Golden Coast Conference, MAAC, MPSF, SCIAC and WWPA were represented with the seven automatic bids.

As has been the case since 2011, conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West represented the six automatic bids.

They were joined by four at-large teams, with play-in games being conducted on May 2: UC San Diego (18-18) def.

UCLA, 7–6 The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 9–11, 2014 with USC, Los Angeles hosting.

[2] UCLA 9–5 Annika Dries of Stanford was named the tournament's most outstanding player.

The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 10–12, 2013 with Harvard University, Cambridge, MA hosting.

Conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West were joined by two at-large teams.

2 seed Stanford, 10-95OT The tournament was held at the SDSU's Aztec Aquaplex in San Diego, California with automatic bids for the MPSF, CWPA, Big West, MAAC, WWPA and SCIAC conferences.

The tournament was held at the University of Michigan's Canham Natatorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan with automatic bids for the MPSF (Stanford), CWPA (Indiana), Big West (UCI), MAAC (Iona), WWPA (UC San Diego) and SCIAC (Redlands).

All Tournament First Team: Amber Oland, Stanford; Annika Dries, Stanford; Emily Csikos, Cal; Kim Krueger, Stanford; Patricia Jancso, USC; Melissa Seidemann, Stanford; Dana Ochsner, Cal; Priscilla Orozco, UCLA All Tournament Second Team: Stephane Peckham, Cal; Jakie Kohli, Indiana; Joelle Bekhazi, USC; KK Clark, UCLA; Cortney Collyer, UC Irvine; Jessy Cardey, UC Irvine; Maggie Wood, Iona; Kelly Easterday, UCLA Tournament MVP: Annika Dries, Stanford The tournament field was announced on Monday, May 3, 2010, with the championship tournament on May 14–16 at San Diego State University's Aztec Aquaplex.

Teams that received automatic bids were UCLA (MPSF), Michigan (CWPA), Marist (MAAC), Loyola Marymount (WWPA) and Pomona-Pitzer (SCIAC).

Stanford, Cal and USC of MPSF received at-large bids.

The following conferences and institutions received automatic qualification for the 2009 championships, which were played on May 8–10: Collegiate Water Polo Association, Michigan; Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Marist; Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, USC; Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Cal Lutheran; and Western Water Polo Association, Loyola Marymount.

The following institutions received at-large bids to the championship field: Stanford, UCLA, and Hawaii.

The UCLA Bruins women's team (3rd seeded) battled the #1 rated USC Trojans for the national championship on Sunday, May 10, 2009, at College Park, Maryland.

[3] Gandy earned the NCAA Tournament's most valuable player honor.