BRIDGEPORT, Pennsylvania, August 27. THE first step on the road to the 2014 National Championship places the champions of 2013 a step behind as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) releases the Preseason Men’s Varsity National Top 20, Division III Top 10 and CWPA Top 10 Polls.
Coming off a 2013 season in which the Trojans of the University of Southern California claimed the program’s sixth consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship, the top nation in the National Top 20 Poll does not hail from the City of Angels, but the outskirts of the City by the Bay as Stanford University will start the 2014 season as the top-ranked team in the land.
In the Division III ranks, Whittier College, which finished 2013 in a dead-heat with Johns Hopkins University for the top spot in the final National Division III Top 10 balloting, will enter the 2014 campaign with sole possession of the top ranking after receiving all but one first place vote in the preseason balloting.
Similar to the National Top 20 poll, the reigning champion of the CWPA does not hold top-billing to start the next season as the 2012 and 2013 league champion Terriers of St. Francis College Brooklyn are edged out by the team they defeated in the 2013 CWPA Championship title game, Princeton University.
Voted on by a panel of coaches from the CWPA, Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the polls are compiled and released on Wednesday during each week of the season through the week following the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship.
2014 Men’s Varsity National Top 20 (Preseason)
Following a run of back-to-back-to-back-to-back-
The Cardinal, which finished third in the final 2014 Poll, garnerd 98 points as Stanford holds a four-point lead over the six-time reigning NCAA Champion Trojans of USC with no games contested this season.
Overall, the Preseason Top 20 is radically different from the concluding balloting of 2013 as only four teams from the final voting of a year ago retain their positions.
The University of California-Los Angeles (93 points) and the University of California (85 points) rate at No. 3 and 4, while 2013 NCAA Championship runner-up University of the Pacific (79 points) completes the Top Five.
Long Beach State University (75 points), the University of California-Santa Barbara (73 points), the University of California-Irvine (63 points) and Pepperdine University (60 points) remain at No. 6-to-9, respectively, while the University of California-San Diego (51 points) moves up one place to rate at No. 10 this year.
The University of California-Davis (46 points) comes in at No. 11, with St. Francis College Brooklyn (43 points) and Princeton University (30 points) holding down the No. 12 and 13 slots to rank as the first non-California based teams in the Top 20.
Loyola Marymount University (34 points), Concordia University (29 points), the United States Naval Academy (24 points), Santa Clara University (23 points) and Brown University (10 points) follow at No. 14-to-18, respectively, while Harvard University (9 points) and Division III top-ranked Whittier College (9 points) complete the Top 20 by tying at No. 19.
The United States Air Force Academy (8 points), Bucknell University (6 points), California Baptist University (4 points) and George Washington University (2 points) also received votes.
2014 Men’s Varsity Division III Top 10 (Preseason)
The Poets of Whittier College (99 points) will begin the 2014 season with sole possession of the No. 1 ranking in the National Division III Top 10 Poll.
Tied with Johns Hopkins University (90 points) at No. 1 in the final 2013 Division III Poll, the Poets received all but one first place vote in the first 2014 voting to build leads of eight (vs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges) and nine (vs. Johns Hopkins) points to stand as the near unanimous top selection among Division III teams.
Behind Whittier, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (91 points) and the Bluejays of Johns Hopkins hold down the No. 2 and 3 positions, while Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (83 points) and California Lutheran University (74 points) round out the Top Five.
Chapman University (73 points), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (72 points), the University of Redlands (65 points), Occidental College (46 points) and University of La Verne (36 points) complete the Top 10.
Washington & Jefferson College (23 points) and Connecticut College (23 points) also received votes.
2014 Men’s Varsity CWPA Top 10 (Preseason)
The runner-up at the 2013 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship to 2012 and 2013 titlist St. Francis College Brooklyn, Princeton University will begin the 2014 season with its own piece of hardware – a target – as the Tigers top the league’s CWPA Preseason Top 10 Poll.
Princeton, which claimed 97 points, holds a two-point lead over the reigning league and Northern Division champion Terriers (95 points). However, the margin will likely either grow or disappear after the opening weekend of play as the Tigers and St. Francis Brooklyn are scheduled to open the season on Saturday, September 6, at the Princeton Invitational in a head-to-head rematch of last year’s title game.
The remainder of the Top 10 poll remains relatively unchanged as the United States Naval Academy (88 points), Bucknell University (83 points), Brown University (82 points), Harvard University (77 points) and George Washington University (71 points) retain their No. 3-to-7 spots from the final 2013 league poll.
Johns Hopkins University (64 points) and Mercyhurst University (49 points) open the new campaign at No. 8 and 9, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (35 points) and Iona College (35 points) are tied for the final berth in the Top 10.
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