Here are my predictions, subject to change if any key players are injured:
Play-in game:
Wagner over McKendree by 4 or more goals
Quarterfinals:
Stanford by a lot over Wagner
Cal by 2 over Hawaii. I understand why Hawaii is seeded higher than Cal but Cal finished the season much stronger than Hawaii and has a better team.
UCLA over LMU by 4 or 5. I would have seeded LMU 6th and Harvard 7th.
USC over Harvard by 5. Hats off to Harvard for qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the first time.
Semifinals:
Stanford over Cal by 2 or more
UCLA over USC by 1. If USC loses to UCLA in the semifinals, I won’t be surprised if USC makes a coaching change.
Finals:
Stanford over UCLA by 1. Stanford’s attackers prove to be too much for UCLA. Ryann Neushul wins her 4th NCAA championship.
Last season was Casey Moon’s first year as head coach of USC and he didn’t have his best players bc of the Olympics. SC handed Stanford its only loss this year and was ranked #1 two separate times during the year. Moon has been with the USC program for 15 (or so) years. I find it hard to believe the program would make a coaching change so soon. But I guess one never knows.
I started a new thread entitled “Evaluating women’s programs after the 2025 season” because I don’t want to turn the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament thread into a referendum on Casey Moon or any other coach.