2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
 | |
| Teams | 7 |
|---|---|
| Format | Single-elimination |
| Finals site | Spieker Aquatics Center Los Angeles, California |
| Champions | California Golden Bears (15th title, 24th title game, 30th Final Four) |
| Runner-up | USC Trojans (26th title game, 31st Final Four) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Kirk Everist (4th title) |
| MVP | Nikos Papanikolaou (California) |
| Television | NCAA |
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.
Schedule
- All times are Eastern time
| November 27 | December 2 | December 4 | December 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Round Game 1 | Opening Round Games 2 & 3 | Semifinals | Championship |
| 1:00 p.m. | 3:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. |
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 1 | Opening Round Games 2–3 | Semifinals | Final | |||||||||||||||
| California (OT) | 15 | |||||||||||||||||
| UCLA | 12 | UCLA | 13 | |||||||||||||||
| Fordham | 8 | Princeton | 6 | California | 13 | |||||||||||||
| Princeton | 17 | USC | 12 | |||||||||||||||
| USC | 11 | |||||||||||||||||
| UC Davis (OT) | 9 | UC Davis | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| Long Beach State | 8 | |||||||||||||||||
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
- Gabe Discipulo (UCLA) was awarded the Elite 90 Award (highest GPA).
References
- ^ "2021 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
- ^ "National Champions!".
- ^ "Tense NCAA Men's Water Polo Title Match Sees Cal Claim Championship with 13-12 Win over USC".
- ^ "Gross, Aznar Beltran named to NCAA All-Tournament Team".