The University of Hawaii women's water polo team was selected as an at-large bid into the 2009 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship today.

UH will be making its third appearance at the NCAA Championship, which will be held May 8-10 at the Eppley Recreation Center, in College Park, Md.,University of Maryland, College Park, will serve as the host institution.

The Rainbow Wahine were selected as No. 4 seed and will open against No. 5 seed Loyola Marymount May 8 at 12:45 p.m. Hawaii time.

"We are all very excited to get a chance to compete at the NCAA Championship," UH head coach Michel Roy said in a UH release. "Now it's time to get back in the pool and prepare for next week."

The NCAA Championship will be an eight-team, single-elimination tournament, with a losers' bracket to determine places three through eight.

UH finished the regular season 18-8 and will be heading back to the NCAA Championship for the first time since the Rainbow Wahine went in back-to-back seasons in 2005 and 2006.

All three NCAA appearances have come under Roy. UH has participated in seven postseasons all together, going back to the National Collegiate Championships.

The No. 1 seed was awarded to USC and the No. 2 seed was awarded to Stanford. UCLA earned the No. 3 seed, Michigan is the No. 6 seed, the No. 7 seed is Marist and Cal-Lutheran is the No. 8 seed.

USC won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title yesterday, beating Stanford.