NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship explained

NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
Founded:	1969
Number Of Teams:	6
Current Champions:	University of California, Berkeley (17)
Most Successful Club:	University of California, Berkeley (17)
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. Beginning in 1969, it has been held every year except 2020, when it was postponed to March 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 in the National Collegiate tournament. 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. This makes it the sport with the fewest teams reaching the NCAA tournament; this is because there are only 43 men's water polo teams between all three NCAA divisions.

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. The University of California, Berkeley is the most successful program with 17 titles, followed by UCLA with 12 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	Site	Pool/Natatorium	Championship Results
style= colspan=7	NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
Year	Site	Pool/Natatorium	Champion	Score	Runner-Up
1969	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool	UCLA	5–2	California
1970			UC Irvine	7–6 (3OT)	UCLA
1971			UCLA	5–3	San Jose State
1972	Albuquerque, NM	Armond H. Seidler Natatorium	UCLA	10–5	UC Irvine
1973	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool	California	8–4	UC Irvine
1974			California	7–6	UC Irvine
1975			California	9–8	UC Irvine
1976			Stanford	13–12	UCLA
1977	Providence, RI	Smith Swim Center^[2]	California	8–6	UC Irvine
1978	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool	Stanford	7–6 (3OT)	California
1979			UC Santa Barbara	11–3	UCLA
1980			Stanford	8–6	California
1981			Stanford	17–6	Long Beach State
1982			UC Irvine	7–4	Stanford
1983			California	10–7	USC
1984			California	9–8	Stanford
1985			Stanford	12–11 (2OT)	UC Irvine
1986			Stanford	9–6	California
1987			California	9–8 (OT)	USC
1988			California	14–11	UCLA
1989	Indianapolis, IN	Indiana University Natatorium	UC Irvine	9–8	California
1990	Long Beach, CA	Belmont Plaza Pool	California	8–7	Stanford
1991			California	7–6	UCLA
1992			California	12–11 (3OT)	Stanford
1993			Stanford	11–9	USC
1994			Stanford	14–10	USC
1995	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	UCLA	10–8	California
1996	La Jolla, San Diego, CA	Canyonview Pool	UCLA	8–7	USC
1997	Fort Lauderdale, FL	International Swimming Hall of Fame Aquatics Complex	Pepperdine	8–7 (2OT)	USC
1998	Newport Beach, CA	Marian Bergeson Aquatic Center	USC	9–8 (2OT)	Stanford
1999	La Jolla, San Diego, CA	Canyonview Pool	UCLA	6–5	Stanford
2000	Malibu, CA	Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool	UCLA	11–2	UC San Diego
2001	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	Stanford	8–5	UCLA
2002	Los Angeles, CA	Burns Aquatics Center	Stanford	7–6	California
2003	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	USC	9–7 (2OT)	Stanford
2004	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	UCLA	10–9 (OT)	Stanford
2005	Lewisburg, PA	Kinney Natatorium	USC	3–2	Stanford
2006	Los Angeles, CA	Burns Aquatics Center	California	7–6	USC
2007	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	California	8–6	USC
2008	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	USC	7–5	Stanford
2009	Princeton, NJ	DeNunzio Pool	USC	7–6	UCLA
2010	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex	USC	12–10 (OT)	California
2011	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex	USC	7–4	UCLA
2012	Los Angeles, CA	McDonald's Swim Stadium	USC	11–10	UCLA
2013	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	USC	12-11 (2OT)	Pacific
2014	La Jolla, San Diego, CA	Canyonview Pool	UCLA	9-8	USC
2015	Los Angeles, CA	Spieker Aquatics Center	UCLA	10-7	USC
2016	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex	California	11-8 (2OT)	USC
2017	Los Angeles, CA	Uytengsu Aquatics Center	UCLA	7-5	USC
2018	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center	USC	14-12	Stanford
2019	Stockton, CA	Chris Kjeldsen Pool Complex	Stanford	13-8	Pacific
2020	Los Angeles, CA	Uytengsu Aquatics Center	UCLA	7-6	USC
2021	Los Angeles, CA	Spieker Aquatics Center	California	13-12	USC
2022	Berkeley, CA	Spieker Aquatics Complex	California	13-12	USC
2023	Los Angeles, CA	Uytengsu Aquatics Center	California	13–11	UCLA
2024	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center
2025	Stanford, CA	Avery Aquatic Center

Notes

Team titles

Team	Years
style=	17	1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2006, 2007, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2023
style=	12	1969, 1971, 1972, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020
style=	11	1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2019
style=	10	1998, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018
style=	3	1970, 1982, 1989
style=	1	1997
style=	1	1979

Appearances by team

Key

National Champion
National Runner-up
Semifinals
Quarterfinals (8 teams 1969 to 1994, 2023-Present, 2 teams 2013 to 2022)
Opening Round (1 or 2 teams since 2015, except for 2020)

School	Conference		QF	SF	CG	CH
School	Conference
		33	33	33	25	17
		38	38	35	22	12
		34	34	30	22	11
		38	38	33	25	10
	Big West	22	22	18	8	3
		13	13	9	1	1
	Big West	12	12	5	1	1
		5	5	4	2	-
		5	5	3	2	-
	Big West	15	15	10	1	-
	Big West	13	13	5	1	-
		8	8	8	-	-
		14	14	5	-	-
	no team	7	7	5	-	-
	NWPC	9	8	4	-	-
	no team	4	4	4	-	-
	Big West	9	9	3	-	-
	no team	2	2	2	-	-
	Big West	2	2	2	-	-
		8	8	1	-	-
	NWPC	3	2	1	-	-
	NWPC	12	12	-	-	-
	no team	10	10	-	-	-
		8	7	-	-	-
	no team	3	3	-	-	-
	no team	3	3	-	-	-
		2	2	-	-	-
	no team	2	2	-	-	-
	no team	2	2	-	-	-
	no team	2	2	-	-	-
	no team	2	2	-	-	-
	no team	2	2	-	-	-
		3	1	-	-	-
	CWPA	3	1	-	-	-
	CWPA	2	1	-	-	-
	West Coast	1	1	-	-	-
	SCIAC	1	1	-	-	-
	WWPA	1	1	-	-	-
	no team	1	1	-	-	-
	no team	1	1	-	-	-
	no team	1	1	-	-	-
School	Conference		QF	SF	CG	CH

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

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. 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

See main article: 2014 NCAA Men's Water Polo 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

See main article: 2015 NCAA Men's Water Polo 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

See main article: 2016 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship.

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

2017 Championship

See main article: 2017 NCAA Men's Water Polo 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

See main article: 2018 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship.

The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 1 and 2, 2018 at Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California. The tournament continued with the format in which eight teams competed for the championship. Teams qualifying as champions of their conferences were Long Beach State, from the Golden Coast Conference (GCC); George Washington, from the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC); Stanford, from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF); Princeton, from the Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC); Pomona-Pitzer, from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC); and UC San Diego, from the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The remaining two teams, Southern California (MPSF) and UCLA (MPSF), were selected at-large without geographical restrictions. Stanford, the #1 seed, and Southern California, the #2 seed, were seeded into the semifinal round, with the other six teams competing for the final two spots in opening and first-round games.^[5] ^[6]

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 was held December 7 and 8, 2019 at the Chris Kjeldsen Aquatic Center, Stockton, California. Seven teams played for the championship. Teams qualifying as champions of their conferences were Pepperdine, from the Golden Coast Conference (GCC); Bucknell, from the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC); Stanford, from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF); Harvard, from the Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC); and UC Davis, from the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The remaining two teams, Southern California (MPSF) and Pacific (GCC), were selected at-large without geographical restrictions. Stanford, the #1 seed, and Pacific, the #2 seed, were seeded into the semifinal round, with the other five teams competing for the final two spots.^[7] ^[8]

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

2020 Championship

See main article: 2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship.

The tournament was played at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, on the campus of USC in Los Angeles. UCLA's Nicolas Saveljic was chosen as the most valuable player after the Bruins defeated the Trojans for their 12th title.

Opening round – Thursday, March 18, 2021

UCLA 19, California Baptist 14
USC 18, Bucknell 9

Semifinals – Saturday, March 20, 2021

No. 3 UCLA 11, No. 1 Stanford 10
No. 4 USC 12, No. 2 California 10

Championship – Sunday, March 21, 2021

No. 3 UCLA 7, No. 4 USC 6

2021 Championship

See main article: 2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship.

The tournament was held at the Spieker Aquatics Center, on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. California defeated Southern California 13-12 to win the 2021 NCAA water polo national championship. It was California's 15th title. Nikos Papanikolaou was the MVP of the tournament.

2022 Championship

The national championship was held on December 3-4, 2022 at the Spieker Aquatics Complex on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, California. Cal defeated Southern California for the 2022 title 13–12.

First Round

Nov. 26, Noon: Princeton (27-5) 11 def. Fordham (26-8) 10

Quarterfinals

Game 1, Dec. 1, 3:00 PM PST: Pacific (22-6) 11 def. UC Davis (19-8) 7
Game 2, Dec. 1, 5:00 PM PST: Southern California (19-6) 11 def. Princeton (26-6) 8

Semifinals

Game 3, Dec. 3, 2:00 PM PST: Cal (22–2) 16 def. Pacific (22–7) 9
Game 4, Dec. 3, 4:00 PM PST: Southern California (20–6) 15 def. UCLA (22–4) 12

Final

Cal (23-2) 13 def. Southern California (21–6) 12

2023 Championship

The national championship will be held on December 1-3, 2023 at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on the campus of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Seven conferences were granted automatic bids. The Southern California Athletic Conference (SCIAC) declined an automatic invitation this year. The tournament is reduced to eight teams.

First round: Friday, Dec. 1, 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m.
Second round: Saturday, Dec. 2, 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m.
Championship: Sunday, Dec. 3, 3:00 p.m. PST, ESPNU

External links

NCAA Men's Water Polo

Notes and References

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_water_polo_champs_records/2013-14/champs.pdf
Web site: New details shed light on demise of swim center.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/waterpolo-men/article/2015-11-22/ncaa-mens-water-polo-committee-announces-championship NCAA Men's Water Polo Committee announces championship selections
https://web.archive.org/web/20160203100254/http://www.ncaa.com/game/waterpolo-men/d1/2015/12/06/southern-california-ucla No. 1 UCLA Repeats as NCAA Champion
Web site: NCAA Championships Next. November 21, 2018 . Stanford Athletics . March 15, 2021.
Web site: Stanford hosts USC for NCAA title . December 1, 2018 . March 15, 2021.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/waterpolo-men/article/2019-11-24/2019-national-collegiate-mens-water-polo-championship, NCAA.com, November 26, 2019
Web site: Pacific Earns Semifinal Bid for NCAA Tournament. 29 June 2023 .