2022 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
 | |
| Teams | 7 |
|---|---|
| Format | Single-elimination |
| Finals site | Spieker Aquatics Complex Berkeley, California |
| Champions | California (16th title) |
| Runner-up | Southern California |
| Semifinalists | |
| Winning coach | Kirk Everist (5th title) |
| MVP | Nikos Papanikolaou (California) |
| Television | NCAA and ESPNU[1] |
The 2022 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from November 26 to December 4, 2022. The first game of the opening round was held at DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, New Jersey and hosted by Princeton University. All subsequent games, including the finals, were held at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley, California and hosted by the University of California. This was the 54th NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Seven teams participated in this championship. Opening round game one was played at Princeton University. The California Golden Bears were the defending national champions.[2]
Qualifying teams
Five conferences were granted automatic qualification to the championship: 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). Two additional teams earned entry into the tournament with at-large bids, with both of them coming from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.[3]
| Seed | Team | Conference | Bid type | Appearance[4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | MPSF | At-large | 31st |
| 2 | UCLA | MPSF | At-large | 37th |
| Fordham | MAWPC | Automatic | 2nd | |
| Pacific | GCC | Automatic | 5th | |
| Princeton | NWPC | Automatic | 8th | |
| Southern California | MPSF | Automatic | 37th | |
| UC Davis | WWPA | Automatic | 9th |
Schedule
- All times are Eastern time[5]
| November 26 | December 1 | December 3 | December 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Round Game 1 | Opening Round Games 2 & 3 | Semifinals | Championship |
| 12:00 p.m. | 6:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. | 6:00 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 20, 2022 by the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee.
| Opening Round Game 1 | Opening Round Games 2–3 | Semifinals | Final | |||||||||||||||
| 2 | UCLA | 12 | ||||||||||||||||
| Southern California | 11 | Southern California | 15 | |||||||||||||||
| Princeton | 11 | Princeton | 8 | Southern California | 12 | |||||||||||||
| Fordham | 10 | 1 | California | 13 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | California | 16 | ||||||||||||||||
| Pacific | 11 | Pacific | 9 | |||||||||||||||
| UC Davis | 7 | |||||||||||||||||
All Tournament Team
After the championship, the All-NCAA Tournament First and Second teams were announced.[4][6]
First Team
- Nikolaos Papanikolaou (Most Outstanding Player, California)
- Max Casabella (California)
- Jack Deely (California)
- Adrian Weinberg (California)
- Jake Ehrhardt (Southern California)
- Nassimo Di Martire (Southern California)
- Mihailo Vukazic (Pacific)
Second Team
- Roberto Valera (California)
- Kyle McKenney (Southern California)
- Ashworth Molthen (Southern California)
- Jake Cavano (UCLA)
- Gianpiero Di Martire (UCLA)
- Bogdan Djerkovic (Pacific)
- Reuel D’Souza (Pacific)
References
- ↑ "USA Water Polo to Present Live Coverage of 2022 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship on ESPNU & ESPN App". USA Water Polo. November 16, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2026.
- ↑ "2022 NCAA men's water polo championship bracket announced". National Collegiate Athletic Association. November 20, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "National Collegiate Athletic Association Releases 2022 Men's Water Polo Championship Bracket". collegiatewaterpolo.org. Collegiate Water Polo Association. November 20, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- 1 2 "2022 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championships Records Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2022 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Nikolaos Papanikolaou leads Cal to 2nd straight NCAA men's water polo title". ESPN. December 4, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2026.