No. 2 UCLA Earns NCAA At-Large Selection, Second Seed
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INDIANAPOLIS – The UCLA men's water polo team (22-4) has earned an at-large bid into the 2022 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship and was seeded second, placing the Bruins in the second semifinal game as announced by the NCAA Men's Water Polo Committee late Sunday night via press release.
The seven teams vying for the National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship will be in competition Dec. 1-4 at California's Spieker Aquatics Complex. California, the defending NCAA Champions, received the top seed. UCLA will be seeking its 13th NCAA title in the sport and the school's 120th overall.
The top two seeds were placed in the bracket with the remaining five teams left to compete for the last two berths in the bracket via three opening-round games. The opening-round games will be contested Nov. 26, hosted by Princeton, and Dec. 1, hosted by California. Both semifinal games will be played at Spieker Aquatics Complex and streamed live on ncaa.com on Dec. 3 (2:00 and 4:00 p.m. PT) with the Championship game airing live on ESPNU on Dec. 4 at 3:00 p.m. PT.
In the first opening-round game, Princeton (26-5) will host Fordham (26-7) on Nov. 26. The winner will advance to the third opening-round game to play USC (18-6) on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 5:00 p.m. PT. The winner will advance to the championship bracket to play UCLA (22-4).
In the second opening-round game, Pacific (21-6) will play UC Davis (19-7) at 3:00 p.m. PT on Dec. 1 with the winner advancing to the championship bracket to play California (21-2).
Five teams earned automatic selections to this year's NCAA Championships by winning their respective conference tournaments. They include USC (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), Pacific (Golden Coast Conference), Princeton (Northeast Water Polo Conference), Fordham (Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference), and UC Davis (Western Water Polo Association). The remaining two teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions.