2024 Men’s Varsity Week 14/December 11/Final National Top 20 & Division III Top 10 Polls Released

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The 2024 men’s varsity season comes to a close as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) releases the official 2024 Men’s Varsity Week 14/December 11/Final National Top 20 and Division III Top 10 Polls.

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) runner-up/National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Champion the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Champion/USA Water Polo Division III National Champion the University of Redlands conclude the year at No. 1 in the National Top 20 and Division III Top 10 in the wake of their national championship titles.

Voted on by a panel of coaches, the National Top 20, Division III Top 10, Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Top Five and Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Top Five polls polls were compiled and released on Wednesday during each week of the season.

2024 Men’s Varsity National Top 20 (Week 14/December 11/Final)

The University of California-Los Angeles – which fell to the University of Southern California by a 15-13 score in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championship title game – avenged the loss to down the Trojans by an 11-8 count over the weekend in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship title game to conclude the 2024 season at No. 1 in the Week 14/December 11/Final National Men’s Varsity Top 20 Poll.

UCLA (100 points) – which was tied with USC and Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Champion Fordham University at No. 1 heading into the NCAA Championship – concludes the year as the unanimous top-ranked team in the nation with USC (95 points) standing at No. 2 in the final balloting.

Fordham (88 points) and Stanford University (88 points) – which fell to USC (18-16 OT) and UCLA (17-14), respectively, in the NCAA Championship semifinals to tie for third in the final tournament standings – wrap-up the year tied at No. 3 in the final poll.

Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion Princeton University (79 points) remains at No. 5, while the trio of Big West Conference Champion Long Beach State University (70 points), University of the Pacific (70 points) and the University of California (70 points) enter a three-way tie at No. 6.

West Coast Conference (WCC) Champion California Baptist University (56 points) acquires sole custody of the No. 9 slot with the duo of San Jose State University (50 points) and the University of California-Irvine (50 points) tying at No. 10.

The University of California-San Diego (49 points), Pepperdine University (45 points), the University of California-Davis (37 points) and the University of California-Santa Barbara (31 points) take over at No. 12-to-15 with Brown University (21 points) retaining the No. 16 position.

Harvard University (20 points) and Santa Clara University (20 points) stay tied at No. 17, while the United States Naval Academy (8 points) acquires company at No. 19 from Loyola Marymount University (8 points) to complete the Top 20.

2024 Men’s Varsity Division III Top 10 (Week 14/December 11/Final)

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC)/USA Water Polo Division III National Champion the University of Redlands completes the 2024 campaign at No. 1 in the Week 14/December 11/Final Men’s Varsity Division III Top 10 Poll.

Redlands (100 points)  – which downed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (8-7 W) and Chapman University (14-13 W OT SD) to claim the SCIAC crown prior to handling Augustana College (16-5 W) and Chapman (14-13 W) for the USA Water Polo Division III National Championship – leads a Top 10 which experiences no changes among the first six teams as Chapman (95 points), Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (90 points), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (85 points), Whittier College (78 points) and California Lutheran University (76 points) remain at No. 2-to-6.

Augustana (67 points) moves up to No. 7 with the University of La Verne (65 points), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (60 points) and Occidental College (39 points) dropping back to No. 8-to-10.