2023 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
 | |
| Teams | 8 |
|---|---|
| Format | Single-elimination |
| Finals site | Uytengsu Aquatics Center Los Angeles, California |
| Champions | California (17th title) |
| Runner-up | UCLA |
| Semifinalists | |
| Winning coach | Kirk Everist (6th title) |
| MVP | Nikos Papanikolaou (California) |
| Television | NCAA, ESPN+, and ESPNU[1] |
The 2023 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from December 1–3, 2023, in Los Angeles, California at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center and hosted by the University of Southern California. This was the 55th NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Eight teams participated in this championship. Before the 2023 season, the tournament was approved to expand to nine teams, though the Southern California Athletic Conference (SCAC) chose to decline its automatic bid. This cancellation eliminated the opening-round play-in game and kept the final tournament bracket at eight teams.[2] The California Golden Bears were the defending national champions.[3]
Qualifying teams
Six conferences were granted automatic qualification to the championship: Big West Conference (Big West), Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), West Coast Conference (WCC), 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.[4]
| Seed | Team | Conference | Bid type | Appearance[5] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UCLA | MPSF | At-large | 38th |
| 2 | California | MPSF | At-large | 33rd |
| 3 | Southern California | MPSF | Automatic | 38th |
| 4 | Princeton | NWPC | Automatic | 9th |
| Biola | WWPA | Automatic | 1st | |
| Fordham | MAWPC | Automatic | 3rd | |
| San Jose State | WCC | Automatic | 5th | |
| UC Irvine | Big West | Automatic | 22nd |
Schedule
- All times are Eastern time[6]
| December 1 | December 1 | December 2 | December 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Round Games 1 & 2 | First Round Games 3 & 4 | Semifinals | Championship |
| 3:00 p.m. & 5:00 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 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 19, 2023 by the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee.
| First round Friday, December 1, 2023 | Semifinals Saturday, December 2, 2023 | Championship Sunday, December 3, 2023 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | UCLA | 20 | ||||||||||||
| Biola | 7 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | UCLA | 17 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Princeton | 13 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Princeton | 12 | ||||||||||||
| UC Irvine | 7 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | UCLA | 11 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | California | 13 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | California | 16 | ||||||||||||
| Fordham | 6 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | California | 10 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Southern California | 9 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Southern California | 18 | ||||||||||||
| San Jose State | 10 | |||||||||||||
All Tournament Team
After the championship, the All-NCAA Tournament First and Second teams were announced.[5][7]
First Team
- Nikolaos Papanikolaou (Most Outstanding Player, California)
- Max Casabella (California)
- Adrian Weinberg (California)
- Jack Larsen (UCLA)
- Rafael Real Vergara (UCLA)
- Nassimo Di Martire (Southern California)
- Max Miller (Southern California)
Second Team
- Jack Howerton (California)
- Garret Griggs (UCLA)
- Makoto Kenney (UCLA)
- Jake Cavano (UCLA)
- Carson Kranz (Southern California)
- Vladan Mitrovic (Princeton)
- Roko Pozaric (Princeton)
References
- ↑ Hofheimer, Bill (November 27, 2023). "2023 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship to be presented live on ESPNU & ESPN+ in collaboration with USA Water Polo". espnpressroom.com. ESPN. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Updates on 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Water Polo Championship". Collegiate Water Polo Association. October 2, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2023 NCAA men's water polo championship selections announced". National Collegiate Athletic Association. November 19, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Water Polo Championship Field Announced". collegiatewaterpolo.org. Collegiate Water Polo Association. November 20, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- 1 2 "2023 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championships Records Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2023 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "California Claims Third Straight NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship". USA Water Polo. December 4, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2026.