NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
Founded	1969
Number of teams	4
Current champions	Stanford (11)
Most successful club(s)	California (14)
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 four-team bracket in 2013 by adding two play-in games that are contested by the bottom four seeds, effectively creating a six-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 California has ever surpassed third place or participated in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship game.

The four California based PAC-12 schools have been the most successful. California is the most successful program with 14 titles, followed by UCLA with 11 titles, Stanford (11 titles), and USC (10 titles).[1] One of these four schools has won the championship every year since 1998.

Championships summary

Year	Team Champion	Score	Team Runner-Up	Location	Venue
1969	UCLA	5–2	California	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1970	UC Irvine	7–6 (3OT)	UCLA	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1971	UCLA (2)	5–3	San Jose State	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1972	UCLA (3)	10–5	UC Irvine	Albuquerque, NM	Armond H. Seidler Natatorium
1973	California	8–4	UC Irvine	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1974	California (2)	7–6	UC Irvine	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1975	California (3)	9–8	UC Irvine	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1976	Stanford	13–12	UCLA	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1977	California (4)	8–6	UC Irvine	Providence, RI	Smith Swim Center[2]
1978	Stanford (2)	7–6 (3OT)	California	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1979	UC Santa Barbara	11–3	UCLA	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1980	Stanford (3)	8–6	California	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1981	Stanford (4)	17–6	Long Beach State	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1982	UC Irvine (2)	7–4	Stanford	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1983	California (5)	10–7	USC	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1984	California (6)	9–8	Stanford	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1985	Stanford (5)	12–11 (2OT)	UC Irvine	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1986	Stanford (6)	9–6	California	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1987	California (7)	9–8 (OT)	USC	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1988	California (8)	14–11	UCLA	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1989	UC Irvine (3)	9–8	California	Indianapolis, IN	Indiana University Natatorium
1990	California (9)	8–7	Stanford	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1991	California (10)	7–6	UCLA	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1992	California (11)	12–11 (3OT)	Stanford	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1993	Stanford (7)	11–9	USC	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1994	Stanford (8)	14–10	USC	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool
1995	UCLA (4)	10–8	California	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
1996	UCLA (5)	8–7	USC	La Jolla, San Diego, CA	Canyonview Pool
1997	Pepperdine	8–7 (2OT)	USC	Fort Lauderdale, FL	International Swimming Hall of Fame Aquatics Complex
1998	USC	9–8 (2OT)	Stanford	Newport Beach, CA	Marian Bergeson Aquatic Center
1999	UCLA (6)	6–5	Stanford	La Jolla, San Diego, CA	Canyonview Pool
2000	UCLA (7)	11–2	UC San Diego	Malibu, CA	Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool
2001	Stanford (9)	8–5	UCLA	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2002	Stanford (10)	7–6	California	Los Angeles	Burns Aquatics Center
2003	USC (2)	9–7 (2OT)	Stanford	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2004	UCLA (8)	10–9 (OT)	Stanford	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2005	USC (3)	3–2	Stanford	Lewisburg, PA	Kinney Natatorium
2006	California (12)	7–6	USC	Los Angeles	Burns Aquatics Center
2007	California (13)	8–6	USC	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2008	USC (4)	7–5	Stanford	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2009	USC (5)	7–6	UCLA	Princeton, NJ	DeNunzio Pool
2010	USC (6)	12–10 (OT)	California	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex
2011	USC (7)	7–4	UCLA	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex
2012	USC (8)	11–10	UCLA	Los Angeles	McDonald's Swim Stadium
2013	USC (9)	12-11 (2OT)	Pacific	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2014	UCLA (9)	9-8	USC	La Jolla, San Diego, CA	Canyonview Aquatic Center
2015	UCLA (10)	10-7	USC	Los Angeles	Spieker Aquatics Center
2016	California (14)	11-8 (2OT)	USC	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex
2017	UCLA (11)	7-5	USC	Los Angeles	Uytengsu Aquatics Center
2018	USC (10)	14-12	Stanford	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2019	Stanford (11)	13-8	Pacific	Stockton, CA	Chris Kjeldsen Pool Complex
2020				Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2021				Los Angeles	Spieker Aquatics Center

Team titles

California

឴឴឵UCLA

Stanford

USC

UC
Irvine

Pepperdine

UC Santa Barbara

Schools with national championships

– 14 championships,

– 11 championships,

– 10 championships,

– 9 championships,

– 3 championships,

– 1 championship

Team	#	Winning years	Runner-up years
California	14	1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2006, 2007, 2016	1969, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1989, 1995, 2002, 2010
UCLA	11	1969, 1971, 1972, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2014, 2015, 2017	1970, 1976, 1979, 1988, 1991, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2012
Stanford	11	1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2019	1982, 1984, 1990, 1992, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2018
USC	10	1998, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018	1983, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
UC Irvine	3	1970, 1982, 1989	1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1985
Pepperdine	1	1997
UC Santa Barbara	1	1979
Long Beach State	0		1981
Pacific	0		2013, 2019
San Jose State	0		1971
UC San Diego	0		2000

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)

Semi-finals		Final

December 5, 3:00 pm

#1 USC	13
		December 6, 2:00 pm
#4 Princeton	3
		#1 USC	7
December 5, 5:00 pm
		#2 UCLA	6
#2 UCLA	9

#3 Loyola Marymount	8 (2 OT)
		Third place

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

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)

Semi-finals		Final

December 4

USC	10
		December 5
St. Francis (NY)	7
		USC	12
December 4
		Cal	10 (OT)
Cal	7

Loyola Marymount	6
		Third place

		December 5

		Loyola Marymount

		St. Francis (NY)

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

Semi-finals		Final

December 3

USC	17
		December 4
Princeton	4
		USC	7
December 3
		UCLA	4
UCLA	10

UC-San Diego	1
		Third place

		December 4

		Princeton	9

		UC-San Diego	7

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.

Semi-finals		Final

December 1, 4:00 PM

#1 Southern California	18
		December 2, 6:12 PM
#4 Air Force	7
		Southern California	11
December 1, 6:12 PM
		UCLA	10
#2 UCLA	17

#3 St. Francis Brooklyn	3
		Third place

		December 2, 4:00 PM

		St. Francis Brooklyn	14

		Air Force	8

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. 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.

Semi-finals		Final

December 7, 1:00 PM

#1 Southern California	10
		December 8, 3:00 PM
#4 St. Francis Brooklyn	3
		Southern California	12
December 7, 2:45 PM
		Pacific	11(2 OT)
#2 Pacific	11

#3 Stanford	10
		Third place

		December 8, 1:00 PM

		St. Francis Brooklyn	2

		Stanford	17

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

2015 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 5 and 6, 2015 at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center, Los Angeles. 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 22, 2015.[3]

Play-in – December 2, 2015

Game 1: #5 UCSD (14–13) def. #4 Princeton (22–4) 12–7
Game 2: #3 USC (20–6) def. #6 Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges (21–7) 20–5

Semifinals – December 5, 2015

Game 3, 1:00 PM PT: #1 seed UCLA (28–0) def. #5 UCSD (15–13) 17–4
Game 4, 3:12 PM PT: #3 USC (21–6) def. #2 seed California (23–6) 9–6

Championship Dec. 6, 2015

Third Place Game, 1:00 p.m. PT: Cal def. UCSD 20–9
National Championship Game, 3:12 p.m. PT: UCLA def. USC 10–7[4]

2016 Championship

California defeated USC 11-8 (2OT) for the national championship.

2017 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 2 and 3, 2017 at USC, Los Angeles. The tournament continued with the new format with eight teams playing for the championship. Conferences received automatic qualification are the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Golden Coast Conference (GCC), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The remaining two teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions.

Opening round – November 25, 2017

Pacific defeated Pomona-Pitzer 16–2
Harvard defeated George Washington 15–13

First round – November 30, 2017

Pacific defeated UC Davis 13–12
USC defeated Harvard 16–4

Semifinals – December 2, 2017

UCLA defeated Pacific 11–9
USC defeated California 12–11

Championship – December 3, 2017

UCLA defeated USC 7–5

2018 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship will be held December 1 and 2, 2018 at Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California. The tournament continues with the format of playing eight teams playing for the championship. Conferences received automatic qualification are the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)/Mid-Atlantic Water Polo (MAWC) Conference, the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), 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 top two ranked teams are placed in the bracket, with the other six teams competing for the final two spots in opening and first round games.

Opening round – November 24, 2018

Long Beach St. def. Pomona-Pitzer 12–5 at Long Beach State
George Washington def. Princeton 14–13 at Princeton

First round – November 29, 2018 (at Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California)

UC San Diego def. Long Beach St. 14–9
UCLA def. George Washington 18–6

Semifinals – December 1, 2018

Stanford def. UC San Diego 16–7 (3:00 PM PT)
USC def. UCLA 8–7 (5:00 PM PT)

Championship – December 2, 2018

USC def. Stanford 14-12

2019 Championship

The NCAA men's water polo championship will be held December 7 and 8, 2019 at the Chris Kjeldsen Aquatic Center, Stockton, California. The tournament format is to have seven teams playing for the championship. Conferences received automatic qualification are the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)/Mid-Atlantic Water Polo (MAWC) Conference, the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The remaining two teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions. The top two ranked teams are placed in the bracket, with the other five teams competing for the final spots in the opening and first round games.

Opening round – November 30, 2019

Bucknell 13, Harvard 12

Opening round – Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019

Southern California 15, Bucknell 9
Pepperdine 15, UC Davis 12

Semifinals – Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019

Stanford 15, Southern California 14 (3OT)
Pacific 17, Pepperdine 13

Championship – Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019

Stanford 13, Pacific 8

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References

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_water_polo_champs_records/2013-14/champs.pdf
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2007/09/05/new-details-shed-light-on-demise-of-swim-center/
NCAA Men's Water Polo Committee announces championship selections, NCAA.com, November 22, 2015
No. 1 UCLA Repeats as NCAA Champion, NCAA.com, December 6, 2015

External links

NCAA Men's Water Polo

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] ttp://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_water_polo_champs_records/2013-14/champs.pdf

[2] ttp://www.browndailyherald.com/2007/09/05/new-details-shed-light-on-demise-of-swim-center/

[3] NCAA Men's Water Polo Committee announces championship selections, NCAA.com, November 22, 2015

[4] No. 1 UCLA Repeats as NCAA Champion, NCAA.com, December 6, 2015

NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
Tournaments	1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Statistics	Appearances by school

National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA	Awards Hall of Champions Conferences
Division I	Institutions Athletic directors Baseball Championship CWS Basketball Men Women Cross Country Men Women Field hockey Championship Football FBS FCS Golf Men Women Ice hockey Men Women Lacrosse Men Women Rowing Women Soccer Men Women Softball Championship WCWS Swimming & Diving Men Women Tennis Men Women Track and Field Men's indoor and outdoor Women's indoor and outdoor Volleyball Men Women Wrestling Championship
Division II	Institutions Baseball Championship Basketball Men Women Cross Country Men Women Field hockey Championship Football Championship Golf Men Women Gymnastics Men Women Ice hockey Men Lacrosse Men Women Rowing Women Soccer Men Women Softball Championship/WCWS Swimming & Diving Men Women Tennis Men Women Track and Field Men's indoor and outdoor Women's indoor and outdoor Volleyball Women Wrestling Championship
Division III	Institutions Baseball Championship Basketball Men Women Cross Country Men Women Field hockey Championship Football Championship Golf Men Women Ice hockey Men Women Lacrosse Men Women Rowing Women Soccer Men Women Softball Championship/WCWS Swimming & Diving Men Women Tennis Men Women Track and Field Men's indoor and outdoor Women's indoor and outdoor Volleyball Men Women Wrestling Championship
Single-division sports and championships	Beach volleyball Women Bowling Women Boxing Championship Fencing Championships Gymnastics Men Women Rifle Championship Skiing Championships Trampoline Championship Water polo Men Women
Events listed in italics have been discontinued.

Water polo in the United States
USA Water Polo
National teams	Men Senior Junior U20 Youth U18 Women Senior Junior U20 Youth U18
Competitions	NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship
Awards	USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Peter J. Cutino Award
Categories	American players American coaches American officials