NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

Founded	1969
Number of teams	4
Current champions	UCLA (9)
Most successful club(s)	California (13)
Website	NCAA.com

The NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship is an annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. It has been held every year since 1969. With a limited number of NCAA water polo programs at the national level, all men's teams, whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III, are eligible to compete each year. The tournament was expanded from a 4 team bracket in 2013 by adding two play-in games that are contested by the bottom four seeds, effectively creating a 6 team bracket with a first round bye for the top two teams.

While the championship often includes teams from around the country, most programs are located within the state of California, and no school from outside the California has ever surpassed third place or participated in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship game.

California is the most successful program, with 13 titles. The Golden Bears are followed by Stanford (10) and UCLA and USC (9 each).^[1]

Championships Summary

Team titles

Recent Championships

2009 Championship

Semifinals scores (Princeton University, December 5, 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm (ET)):

• #1 USC 13 vs. #4 Princeton 3; #2 UCLA 9 vs. #3 Loyola Marymount 8 (2 OT)

National Championship (Princeton University, December 6, 2:00 pm (ET)):

• #1 USC (25-2) vs. #2 UCLA (23-6)

2009 NCAA All-Tournament Teams:

• First-Team – Shea Buckner, USC; Scott Davidson, UCLA; Ben Hohl, UCLA; Tibor Forai, LMU; J. W. Krumpholz, USC; Andy Stevens, LMU; Jordan Thompson, USC (MVP)
• Second-Team – Edgaras Asajavicius, LMU; Matt Hale, Princeton; Cullen Hennessy, UCLA; Chay Lapin, UCLA; Matt Sagehorn, USC; Josh Samuels, UCLA; Eric Vreeland, Princeton; Griffin White, UCLA; Mark Zalewski, Princeton

On January 12, 2010, the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee has reprimanded the University of Southern California men’s water polo team for inappropriate behavior following the championship event at the 2009 NCAA Water Polo Championship.^[3]

2010 Championship

Semifinals (December 4, 2010, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California)

• USC def. St. Francis (NY) 10-7
• California def. Loyola Marymount 7-6

Championship (December 5, 2010, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California)

• USC def. California 12-10 (OT)

2010 NCAA All-Tournament Teams:

• First-Team – Peter Kurzeka, USC (MVP); Ivan Rackov, CAL; Zachary White, CAL; Tibor Forai, LMU; Nikola Vavic, USC; Andy Stevens, LMU; Brian Dudley, CAL
• Second-Team – Boris Plavsic, SFC; Ikaika Aki, LMU; Marko Gencic, SFC; Jeremy Davie, USC; Joel Dennerley, USC; Matt Burton, USC; Cory Nasoff, CAL

2011 Championship

Conferences receiving automatic qualification included the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining team was selected at-large without geographical restrictions.

Semifinals (December 3, 2011, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California)

• USC (22-3) def. Princeton (21-9) 17–4
• UCLA (23-4) def. UC-San Diego (17-9) 10–1

Championship (December 4, 2010, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California)

• Third-place game, Princeton def. UC San Diego 9-7
• Championship game, USC def. UCLA 7–4

2011 NCAA All-Tournament Teams:

• First-Team – Joel Dennerley (MOP), Peter Kurzeka and Nikola Vavic, USC; Josh Samuels and Cullen Hennessy, UCLA; Thomas Nelson, Princeton and Graham Saber, UC San Diego.
• Second-team – Matt Rapacz, Griffin White and Cristiano Mirarchi, UCLA; Jeremy Davie and Mace Rapsey, USC; Drew Hoffenberg, Princeton, and Brian Donohoe, UC San Diego.

2012 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 1 and 2, 2012 at Southern California's McDonald’s Swim Stadium. Conferences receiving automatic qualification included the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining team was selected at-large without geographical restrictions. All four championship games will be streamed live on www.NCAA.com.

Semifinals - December 1, 2012

• Southern California (27-0) vs. Air Force (19-10) 4 p.m. ET
• UCLA (27-4) vs. St. Francis (N.Y.) (16-8) 6:12 p.m. ET

Finals - December 2, 2012

• Third-place game played at 4 p.m. ET
• The championship game played at 6:12 p.m. ET.

2013 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 7 and 8, 2013 at Stanford's Avery Aquatic Center. This season marked the introduction of an expanded format. Six teams were seeded into the tournament, with the bottom four participating in Play-in games to fill the four team bracket. Four conferences received automatic qualification: the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The remaining two teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions. The tournament was seeded by the Men’s Water Polo Committee on December 1, 11:00 p.m. (ET)/8:00 p.m. (PT). Conference representatives were Southern Cal (MPSF), Whittier College (SCIAC), UC San Diego (WWPA), and St. Francis College Brooklyn (CWPA).

Play-in – December 5, 2013

• Game 1: #5 St. Francis College Brooklyn (22-10) def. #4 UC San Diego (14-13) 6-5
• Game 2: #3 Stanford (21-5) def. #6 Whittier College (19-12) 20-3

Semifinals – December 7, 2013

• 1 p.m. – Seed No.1 Southern Cal (26-4) def. #5 St. Francis College Brooklyn (23-10) 10–3
• 2:45 p.m. – Seed No. 2 Pacific (22-4) def. #3 Stanford (22-5) 11–10

Finals – December 8, 2013

• Third-place game played at 1 p.m.
• The championship game played at 3 p.m.

2014 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 6 and 7, 2014 at UC San Diego's Canyonview Aquatic Center, La Jolla, CA. The tournament continued with the new format by adding two more teams to play in the four-team play-in games. Conferences received automatic qualification were the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The remaining teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions. They were selected by the Men’s Water Polo Committee on November 23, 2014.

Play-in – November 29, 2014

• Game 1: #4 UC San Diego (15-9) def. #5 Brown University (26-6) 12–7
• Game 2: #3 USC (22-6) def. #6 Whittier (23-12) 19-4

Semifinals – December 6, 2014

• Game 3, 1:00 PM PT: #1 seed UCLA (27-3) def. #4 seed UC San Diego (16-9) 15–6
• Game 4, 3:12 PM PT: #3 seed USC (23-6) def. #2 seed Stanford (25-3) 12–11 in triple OT

Championship Dec. 7, 2014

• Third Place Game, 1:00 p.m. PT: #2 seed Stanford def. #4 seed UC San Diego 20–11
• National Championship Game, 3:12 p.m. PT: #1 seed UCLA def. #3 seed USC 9–8

References

External links

• NCAA Men's Water Polo
• Pre-NCAA Water Polo Champion