LOS ANGELES --- California Baptist University will be one of seven universities from the state of California to form a new collegiate women's water polo conference that will begin competition in the spring of 2014.

The new conference, which will be called the Golden Coast Conference, will feature Azusa Pacific University, Fresno Pacific University, Loyola Marymount University, San Diego State University, Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific as well as CBU.

"CBU is thrilled to be a part of this new women's water polo conference," said Director of Athletics Dr. Micah Parker. "We appreciate the opportunity to compete with universities who are committed to the promotion of women's water polo. This should be a challenging and exciting conference."

The Golden Coast Conference will begin competition next season and will feature a conference schedule in which each team will play each other once. The final conference standings will then decide seeding for an annual conference championship, which will be held April 24-26, 2014.
 
The new league will apply for an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championships this summer. In addition, the membership is currently searching for a commissioner and finalizing its league bylaws.

"The Golden Coast Conference is comprised of Division I and II teams that I have great deal of respect for," said CBU Head Coach Jacob Medina. "The Lancer women's water polo program is extremely blessed to be joining such a great group of programs to form this exciting new conference. It is great to finally become a member of an NCAA conference. Having the big end of the season conference tournament is something we have been missing in our program."
 
CBU is on target to complete its transition to NCAA Division II this summer and be eligible for championship competition this upcoming 2013-14 season.  Azusa Pacific and Fresno Pacific are also making the transition to NCAA Division II and are hoping to be eligible the following season. San Diego State and Pacific are moving from the Big West Conference while LMU and Santa Clara are moving from the Western Water Polo Association. 

In the program's 14-year existence, the Lancers have never been part of a women's water polo conference but have consistently been ranked in the Top 25 of the CWPA National Coaches' Poll. CBU has never had a losing season since its inaugural season in 2000, boasting a 305-192 (.614) overall record.

The Lancers also have a 40-30 combined record against their future conference mates.