A budding dynasty at Fresno State has surfaced from the depths of the aquatics center. Bulldog water polo has arrived, highlighted by its Head Coach Natalie Benson.

“She was building her values and everything sounded really great to me,” said former Bulldog Emily Nicholson. “So I basically told her, ‘Let’s get this going.’”

Established in 2017, Benson was hired before their first season to recruit and field a roster. Benson’s pedigree in the water polo community put the program on the map immediately.

The program, however, had its rough patches early on. With masterful recruiting, Benson turned water polo at Fresno State into a dominant force in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) having won four consecutive GCC titles and falling short of a fifth.

Even through the infancy of the program, Benson was able to create the culture that has given her program the rise to dominance. 

“It’s almost hard to explain how much growth that program went through,” Nicholson said. “I remember our first ever home game in my freshman year, water polo had never been at Fresno, and we had over 600 people in the crowd for that first game.”

When Nicholson left the program in 2022, she finished her career with 196 goals. In her senior season, she picked up a freshman to mentee, Brooke Ochoa. Four seasons later, that freshman that Nicholson picked up would break her own goal record.

Ochoa’s record breaking goal came in a tough loss against the Loyola Marymount University Lions. Ochoa set herself up down low and ripped a backhand shot to notch her third goal of the game.

“I scored [my one hundredth goal] in Hawaii and it felt like something was missing from that moment,” Ochoa said. “To be able to break the record at home with my mom waving my cut-out was special.”

Ochoa was the perfect player that Nicholson could have passed the torch to. A high energy player that holds everyone around her accountable. Benson has labelled Ochoa as an “energizer bunny” and a “generational talent.”

The only two Bulldogs to win GCC player of the year: Nicholson and Ochoa.

“It was very clear right from the get go with Brooke that she was going to go somewhere,” Nicholson said. “She was aggressive, she was quick, she was fearless, but more so like her attitude. She was also relentless, she was going to work.”

Ochoa’s work ethic might have created another budding superstar in the program. Junior attacker Hailey Andress is right on the heels of Ochoa’s record. With a ludicrous 74 goal season in 2024, she is well on the way to be the next Bulldog to be in the record books.

“We build each other up, and I think that’s the best part about our friendship and being teammates with her is that we’re very encouraging of each other,” Andress said. “We always want the other to succeed.”

A program’s success comes from the culture. With Benson’s tenure, she has created a culture that enriches a student-athlete holistically, which her players have bought into. The rich culture created the standard of water polo at Fresno State, winning the GCC.

The Bulldogs have not had a losing season since 2019, when they finished 14-15. After the shortened season in 2020, the Bulldogs have been nothing short of dominant. For her program, Benson’s players drown out the noise and do not take games for granted.

“We have our values at the school, values we hold with our team, so continuing to make sure that those are the priorities in and out of the pool is how we’re gonna keep moving forward,” Andress said. 

This mindset permeates throughout the entire program. From the moment Benson recruits players, they know what is expected of them. Grit and determination has pushed the program from contender to powerhouse.

The class of seniors that the Bulldogs will let go of after this season came into a program that was fresh off their first GCC championship. Four years later, they played for their fourth consecutive title, and the program’s fifth title.

It might not have been a powerhouse when they committed, but it definitely is now. 

“It’s awesome how quickly we can create a legacy and a culture here,” Ochoa said. “When you come to Fresno State and you’re on this water polo team, it’s like a family. You can’t escape each other.”

The program has belief that it can elevate its game to another level despite it only being active for eight seasons because of its underdog spirit. 

While they were 2-32 heading into this season against top teams like Cal Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Stanford and Hawaii, the Bulldogs believe that they have the experience and talent to play up to the elite level of the top programs. Close games against Hawaii and Cal in the non-conference schedule supports this belief and mindset.

“It is cool to come into a winning program, but we do talk about a lot [that] our team this year, we haven’t won anything, so I don’t think that we’re kind of living in those past moments,” said senior Abbey Simshauser. “We’re really living for, like this year, and what we can do with this team, because it is a new team.”

One constant that the program has on their side is the Red Wave. The energy the fans give the players in the pool is something that players, past and present, do not take for granted.

“For me, coming to the Central Valley, and everybody’s so close knit, and everybody’s working together and coming out and showing out for everybody,” said senior Abigayle Armstrong.

Even for the inaugural home game for the Bulldogs, the Red Wave was out in full force. 

“I think the sense of community that Fresno State gave me was something I didn’t ever expect,” Nicholson said.

No women’s program at Fresno State has won five consecutive conference titles. The only program at Fresno State to win five or more consecutive titles was the Diamond ‘Dogs from 2006-2012.

The Bulldogs’ hopes of a fifth title were dashed with their championship loss to LMU in the GCC Tournament. The ‘Dogs will look to continue their dominance in the coming years.