CHENGDU, China — UC Santa Barbara freshman Bella Mady will be making a stop in China before she meets up with her new Gaucho Women's Water Polo teammates, as the Delta, British Columbia native has been selected to Team Canada for this year's U18 Water Polo World Championships. It is a call-up that UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Serela Kay says Mady has certainly earned, and an experience that she expects the soon-to-be collegiate rookie to benefit from.
 
"Bella is a dynamic player who has the ability to match up and shut down any type of player while playing on both the outside and in the paint on the attack," Kay said. "This, coupled with her additional international experience means she will be able to contribute right away."
 
Mady, a 5-foot-10 utility player, starred for her club team, Fraser Valley, helping them to Canada's 2023 National Championship League Western Conference Championship, earning a spot in the U17 Canadian Championships. Mady was the top scorer in the Western Conference Championships that year and unsurprisingly named to the All-Star team. Later that year at the 2023 Junior Olympics in Irvine, Mady earned All-America honors.
 
Mady has represented her country before, most recently at the Junior Pan American Championships in 2023. At the U18 World Championships this year, Canada will be looking to improve on a 10^th-place finish in 2022, and they will be favored to advance to the knockout rounds from Group C this year. Only one of their group-mates, Croatia (9^th), finished ahead of the Canadians in 2022, with South Africa coming 15^th two years ago and Thailand attending the tournament for the first time.
 
Mady and Canada will open their campaign against Thailand on Saturday, Sept. 14, at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time. They will then play South Africa at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, Sept. 16 and round out the group stage against Croatia at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, Sept. 17. If Canada wins their group, they will go straight through to the knockout rounds. Finish second or third, and they will have to play on Thursday, Sept. 19 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. The gold medal match is set for Sept. 22.
 
All of the action from the tournament will be live streamed for free on the World Aquatics YouTube channel.