2024 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
 | |
| Teams | 8 |
|---|---|
| Format | Single-elimination |
| Finals site | Avery Aquatic Center Stanford, California |
| Champions | UCLA (13th title) |
| Runner-up | Southern California |
| Semifinalists | |
| Winning coach | Adam Wright (5th title) |
| MVP | Ryder Dodd (UCLA) |
| Television | NCAA and ESPNU[1] |
The 2024 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from December 6–8, 2024, in Stanford, California at the Avery Aquatic Center and hosted by Stanford University. This was the 56th NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. The California Golden Bears were the defending national champions. After winning three consecutive national titles from 2021 to 2023, California failed to qualify for the 2024 championship, ensuring that a new national champion would be crowned.[2]
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.[3]
| Seed | Team | Conference | Bid type | Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UCLA | MPSF | At-large | 39th |
| 2 | Southern California | MPSF | Automatic | 39th |
| 3 | Fordham | MAWPC | Automatic | 4th |
| 4 | Stanford | MPSF | At-large | 35th |
| California Baptist | WCC | Automatic | 2nd | |
| Long Beach State | Big West | Automatic | 14th | |
| Princeton | NWPC | Automatic | 10th | |
| Salem (WV) | WWPA | Automatic | 1st |
Schedule
- All times are Eastern time[4]
| December 6 | December 6 | December 7 | December 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Monday, November 25, 2024, by the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee.
| First round Friday, December 6, 2024 | Semifinals Saturday, December 7, 2024 | Championship Sunday, December 8, 2024 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | UCLA | 22 | ||||||||||||
| Salem (WV) | 6 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | UCLA | 17 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Stanford | 14 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Stanford | 15 | ||||||||||||
| Princeton | 8 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | UCLA | 11 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Southern California | 8 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Southern California | 17 | ||||||||||||
| California Baptist | 13 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Southern California | 18 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Fordham | 16 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Fordham | 16 | ||||||||||||
| Long Beach State | 11 | |||||||||||||
All Tournament Team
After the championship, the All-NCAA Tournament First and Second teams were announced.[5][6]
First Team
- Ryder Dodd (Most Outstanding Player, UCLA)
- Chase Dodd (UCLA)
- Frederico Jucá Carsalade (UCLA)
- Robert López Duart (Southern California)
- Max Miller (Southern California)
- Bernardo Herzer (Southern California)
- Soren Jensen (Stanford)
Second Team
- Jack Larsen (UCLA)
- Andrej Grurevic (Southern California)
- Luca Provenziani (Fordham)
- Riley Pittman (Stanford)
- Roko Pozaric (Princeton)
- Caleb Teraoka (California Baptist)
- William Whitstone (California Baptist)
References
- ↑ "Watch the 2024 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Water Polo National Championship on NCAA.com & ESPNU". Collegiate Water Polo Association. December 1, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2024 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship selections". National Collegiate Athletic Association. November 25, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2024 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Water Polo Championship Field Set; No. 3 Fordham University & No. 6 Princeton University to Face No. 8 Long Beach State University & No. 2 Stanford University". collegiatewaterpolo.org. Collegiate Water Polo Association. November 25, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "2024 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ "National Collegiate Athletic Association Releases 2023 & 2024 NCAA Men's Water Polo National Championship All-Tournament Teams". Collegiate Water Polo Association. December 9, 2025. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
- ↑ Hallahan, Jack (December 9, 2024). "2024 NCAA Water Polo Championships: UCLA Hoists Trophy Behind Second-Half Surge". Swimming World. Retrieved May 21, 2026.