2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

The 2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from December 4–5, 2021 in Los Angeles, California at the Spieker Aquatics Center. This was the 53rd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Seven teams participated in this championship. Opening round game-one was played at Princeton University. The UCLA Bruins were the defending national champions and the 2021 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) champions. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 University of California, No. 2 University of Southern California, No. 3 University of California Los Angeles, No. 4 Stanford University, No. 5 Long Beach State University.

2021 NCAA
Men's Water Polo tournament
Teams7
FormatSingle-elimination
Finals siteSpieker Aquatics Center
Los Angeles, California
ChampionsCalifornia Golden Bears (15th title, 24th title game, 30th Final Four)
Runner-upUSC Trojans (26th title game, 31st Final Four)
Semifinalists
Winning coachKirk Everist (4th title)
MVPNikos Papanikolaou (California)
TelevisionNCAA

Schedule
All times are Eastern time
November 27 December 2 December 4 December 5
Opening Round Game 1Opening Round Games 2 & 3SemifinalsChampionship
1:00 p.m.3:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.5:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.5:00 p.m.

[1]

Bracket

The championship featured a knockout format where schools that lost were eliminated from the tournament. The championship pairings were announced on Sunday, November 21, 2021 by the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee.

Opening Round Game 1Opening Round Games 2–3SemifinalsFinal
California (OT)15
UCLA12UCLA13
Fordham8Princeton6California13
Princeton17USC12
USC11
UC Davis (OT)9UC Davis8
Long Beach State8

Qualification

Top ranked teams from five conferences received automatic qualification (AQ). The conferences are the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The two at-large teams, without geographical restrictions, came from MPSF: UCLA and Southern California.

Teams
Conference Team Record
GCC Long Beach State 22–5
MAWPC Fordham 24–6
MPSF California 20–4
MPSF UCLA 19–3
MPSF USC 17–2
NWPC Princeton 25–7
WWPA UC Davis 17–2

All-NCAA Tournament Team

After the championship, the All-NCAA Tournament First and Second teams were announced.[2][3][4]

First Team
  • Max Casabella (Cal)
  • Hannes Daube (USC)
  • Jack Deely (Cal)
  • Jacob Mercep (USC)
  • Ashworth Molthen (USC)
  • Nikolaos Papanikolaou (MVP, Cal)
  • Adrian Weinberg (Cal)

Second Team
  • Nic Porter (USC)
  • Nikos Delagrammatikas (Cal)
  • Nir Gross (UC Davis)
  • Aleix Aznar Beltran (UC Davis)

Awards

References
  1. "2021 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
  2. "National Champions!".
  3. "Tense NCAA Men's Water Polo Title Match Sees Cal Claim Championship with 13-12 Win over USC".
  4. "Gross, Aznar Beltran named to NCAA All-Tournament Team".


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