Starting tomorrow, Swimming World will post previews of the six conferences that will send teams to the 2018 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Tournament, to be held November 29 – December 2 at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. Look to SW for in-depth stories and game recaps of all the action from this year’s exciting NCAA men’s varsity action.
The Collegiate Water Polo Association yesterday released its 2018 Pre-Season Men’s Varsity poll, an annual milestone signaling that the NCAA men’s varsity season is on the horizon.
UCLA opens the defense of its 2017 NCAA title—won over arch-rival Southern Cal last December at USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center—next Saturday with the UCLA Invitational; before players hit the water, it’s instructive to look at which teams the coaches who vote for the CWPA poll selected, now and in the recent past.
The five teams picked one through five in 2018—UCLA, USC, Cal, Stanford and Pacific—are exactly the same as the final CWPA poll for the 2017 season. This is no surprise; over the last five years, those teams have annually been among the poll’s top five finishers. The only anomaly is 2014, when Pacific dropped out of the top five and was replaced by the 49ers of Long Beach State.
On the strength of a strong recruiting class, Gavin Arroyo’s LBS team claimed sixth in this year’s preseason poll. Rounding out the CWPA top 10 are: UC Davis, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara.
Harvard at #11 is the top selection from the East; Princeton slips in after #12 UC San Diego with Brown following #14 San Jose State.
The final five of the CWPA’s top 20 are: Cal Baptist, Pomona-Pitzer, George Washington, St. Francis Brooklyn and a three-way tie for 20th between Air Force, Bucknell and Wagner.
The CWPA contributed to this report.