UCLA Selected as No. 1 Seed for the 2014 NCAA Championship
INDIANAPOLIS -- The top-ranked UCLA men's water polo team (27-3, 8-0 MPSF) was awarded the No. 1 seed for the upcoming NCAA Championship tonight as announced by the NCAA Men's Water Polo Committee. Six teams will be vying for the 2014 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship to be held on the campus of UC San Diego on Dec. 6-7.
The top two seeds have been placed in the bracket; the remaining four teams will compete for the last two berths in the bracket via two play-in games. The play-in games will be contested Nov. 29.
In the first play-in game No. 4 seed UC San Diego, (15-9) will host No. 5 seed Brown University (26-6). The winner will be placed in the championship bracket to play No. 1 seed UCLA (27-3). In the second-play-in game No. 3 seed USC (22-6) will host No. 6 seed Whittier (23-12), with the winner advancing to the championship bracket to play No. 2 seed Stanford (25-3). Game times for the play-in games are yet to be determined.
Game times for the championship are 1 p.m. and 3:12 p.m. Pacific time, Dec. 6. The third-place game will be played at 1 p.m., Dec. 7, with the championship game at 3:12 p.m. Pacific time. The four championship games will be played at Canyonview Pool in La Jolla, Calif. and streamed live on NCAA.com.
Conferences receiving automatic qualification included the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining two teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions.
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NOTES: UCLA posted its largest margin of victory on Sunday, Nov. 23 (10-5, five goals) over USC in 25 years (the Bruins beat USC 10-4 on Nov. 10, 1989). The win also gave the Bruins three over USC in 2014, pushing the record to 3-1 against the Trojans this year and 5-2 against USC in the last two years. The Bruins have beaten Stanford twice this season, both wins were while Stanford was ranked No. 1. UCLA has been ranked No. 1 in the country for seven weeks in 2014, compared to four weeks for Stanford and one week for USC. The Bruins went undefeated at 8-0 in the MPSF and UCLA has the best record away from home in the country at 18-1, going 10-0 in neutral games and 8-1 in road games. The Bruins are 8-2 this year against the NCAA Championship field (3-1 vs. USC, 2-1 vs. Stanford, 2-0 vs. UC San Diego, 1-0 vs. Whittier). This is UCLA's first appearance in the NCAA Championship field since an 11-10 overtime loss to USC in the 2012 title game.