HONOLULU — The Hawaii water polo team is now at the mercy of the water polo gods and the NCAA selection committee.

The Rainbow Wahine fell short of their goal of a third straight Big West championship on Saturday as they lost 11-8 at home to rival UC Irvine at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, setting up a tense wait-and-see for whether their otherwise successful 2022 season is over, or if they will get to compete in the NCAA tournament.

The selection show is Monday at 2 p.m. Hawaii time, livestreamed on NCAA.com. UH has been ranked in the top five for most of the season; currently, the Wahine are No. 4, behind the only three teams ever to have won an NCAA championship: USC, Stanford and UCLA.

“Possibly,” UH coach Maureen Cole said of her 16-6 team’s NCAA tournament hopes. “We have a pretty solid record. We had a few games canceled early in the year for teams being out to COVID, so that kind of changes our win-loss record more than it would. But at the same time, I think we still have a shot.”

UH, which matched up with fifth-ranked Irvine (22-6) for the fourth straight Big West final ­– and for the sixth time in nine editions since joining the BWC for the 2013 season – fell behind by two goals at the outset and basically played catch-up from that point on.

Irvine picked up its eighth Big West title, the most in conference history. By comparison, UH has four crowns. The Anteaters are headed to the NCAA tournament at Michigan on May 6-8 by virtue of the conference’s automatic bid.

UCI goalkeeper Jordan Frost was named the tournament MVP in filling in for starter Faith Tedesco in the semifinals and final. She had eight saves against UH.

“All in all, the fight and effort by these girls was amazing,” UCI assistant coach Andrew Rowe said.

Rowe thought the team’s turning point was winning at Cal in overtime on April 2. The Anteaters had lost to the Golden Bears 16-8 earlier in the season.

“Things changed for us. We started to really jell as a group. Moving forward from there, I thought practices were great, effort was great,” Rowe said.

Elena Flynn led the Anteaters in scoring with four goals.

UH’s centers were minimized in their home pool. Sophomore attacker Alba Bonamusa Boix had four goals to lead UH.

“That’s something we really keyed on today; not allowing their centers to control the game. Making them beat us from outside,” Rowe said.

Cole’s Wahine defeated Irvine by one-goal margins in the Big West final in 2021 and 2019. The 2020 tournament was canceled by the COVID pandemic. UH defeated Irvine 11-8 in the regular-season matchup at UCI’s pool on April 8, the Anteaters’ only loss in their last 10 matches.

“Other than us losing, that was everything you want out of a championship,” Cole said. “That was two great teams. We have a lot of respect for each other. We both came out competing as hard as we could. Hats off to Irvine. They played fantastic today and came up with the big goals. We didn’t come up with the big stops.”

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.