Four years ago, USA Water Polo introduced a separate national championship for Division III programs that had always had to compete against Division I foes in the NCAA Championship Tournament.
Before the sport's governing body changed its postseason format, “A top team would end our season pretty quickly,” Sagehens Women’s Water Polo Coach Alex Rodriguez recalls.
Earlier this month, Pomona-Pitzer captured a fourth straight USA Water Polo Division III championship, defeating chief rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), 9-8, to cap yet another unblemished postseason run.
The four-peat sent Pomona College seniors Zosia Amberger ’25 and Kaylee Stigar ’25 into the sunset having never lost a playoff game in blue and orange. Amberger started in goal all four championship years and was named Tournament MVP in her farewell season.
“Zosia’s probably the best goalie I’ve ever had here,” Rodriguez says. “She’s been a huge part of what we’ve been able to do. And Kaylee Stigar played phenomenal in the finals. She really stepped up. She had this anger and vengeance that really helped us.”
As seniors, Amberger and Stigar were among the class of Sagehens that started at Pomona when students returned to campus following the initial pandemic shutdown. In that first year as Sagehens, Rodriguez says the current seniors learned much from the Class of 2022, including how to lead and handle adversity.
As much winning as the program’s done these past four years, the pressure to retain the top spot in Division III mounts, Rodriguez says.
“I have a simple philosophy that to get better, you have to play better teams,” the coach adds. “Because our sport is small, we play a lot of Division I teams early in the season, and that’s how we develop small goals. To be clutch, to be someone who plays well in big moments, you have to understand you’re going to fail sometimes.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Rodriguez adds. “You just keep going forward.”
Despite losing Pomona grads Amberger, Stigar and a handful of seniors from Pitzer College, the Sagehens do not expect to relinquish their stranglehold on Division III women’s water polo anytime soon.
Rodriguez and Associate Head Coach Alex La—one of the best coaches in Division III, Rodriguez says—expect Mia Amberger ’26, Brienz Lang ’26 and Gabby Lewis ’26 to assume leadership roles next season, and key underclassmen from this year’s team will continue to develop at the collegiate level.
“The goal of every season is to try to have little championship moments every week,” Rodriguez says. “We try to prepare to win certain types of games, get more feathers in our cap, then win a Division III championship by the end.”