2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

The 2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from March 18–21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California, at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center. This was the 52nd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Six teams participated in this championship. Although this was the 2020 championship, it was played in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 California, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 USC.[1]

2020 NCAA
Men's Water Polo tournament
Teams6
FormatSingle-elimination
Finals siteUytengsu Aquatics Center
Los Angeles, California
ChampionsUCLA Bruins (12th title, 21st title game, 32nd Final Four)
Runner-upUSC Trojans (25th title game, 30th Final Four)
Semifinalists
Winning coachAdam Wright (4th title)
MVPNicolas Saveljic (UCLA)
TelevisionNCAA

Schedule edit

March 18 March 20 March 21
Opening Round Semifinals Championship

[2]

Bracket edit

The championship featured a knockout format where schools that lost were eliminated from the tournament.

Opening Round Semifinals National Championship
Stanford 10
UCLA 19 UCLA 11
California Baptist 14 UCLA 7
USC 6
California 10
USC 18 USC 12
Bucknell 9

Qualification edit

Automatic qualifications (AQ) were awarded to six conferences. Three conferences, the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) withdrew their automatic qualification. Participating in this year's tournament were teams from the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). Automatic qualification teams were Bucknell (CWPA), California Baptist (WWPA), and Stanford (MPSF). At-large bids were awarded to California, UCLA and USC from MPSF.

All-NCAA Tournament edit

First Team

  • Jake Cavano, UCLA
  • Jake Ehrhardt, USC
  • Bernardo Maurizi, UCLA
  • Jacob Mercep, USC
  • Nicolas Saveljic, UCLA (MVP)

Second Team

  • Tommy Gruwell, UCLA
  • Carson Kranz, USC
  • Nic Porter, USC

References edit

  1. ^ "2021 Winter Men's Varsity Polls – Week 8/March 17". collegiatewaterpolo.org. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  2. ^ "2020 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved March 21, 2021.