Collegiate water polo tournament
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| Teams | 6 |
|---|---|
| Format | Single-elimination |
| Finals site | Uytengsu Aquatics Center Los Angeles, California |
| Champions | UCLA Bruins (12th title, 21st title game, 32nd Final Four) |
| Runner-up | USC Trojans (25th title game, 30th Final Four) |
| Semifinalists |
|
| Winning coach | Adam Wright (4th title) |
| MVP | Nicolas Saveljic (UCLA) |
| Television | NCAA |
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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.
Schedule
| March 18 | March 20 | March 21 |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Round | Semifinals | Championship |
Bracket
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
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
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
- "2021 Winter Men's Varsity Polls – Week 8/March 17". collegiatewaterpolo.org. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
- "2020 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
| 2020–21 NCAA Division I championships | |
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| NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship | |
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| Tournaments | |
| Statistics | |
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