2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

The 2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from March 18–21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California, at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center. This was the 52nd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Six teams participated in this championship. Although this was the 2020 championship, it was played in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 California, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 USC.^[1]

2020 NCAA
Men's Water Polo tournament

Teams	6
Format	Single-elimination
Finals site	Uytengsu Aquatics Center Los Angeles, California
Champions	UCLA Bruins (12th title, 21st title game, 32nd Final Four)
Runner-up	USC Trojans (25th title game, 30th Final Four)
Semifinalists	California Golden Bears (29th Final Four) Stanford Cardinal (30th Final Four)
Winning coach	Adam Wright (4th title)
MVP	Nicolas Saveljic (UCLA)
Television	NCAA
← 2019 NCAA Men's Water Polo Tournament 2021 →

Schedule

March 18	March 20	March 21
Opening Round	Semifinals	Championship

^[2]

Bracket

The championship featured a knockout format where schools that lost were eliminated from the tournament.

	Opening Round				Semifinals				National Championship
					Stanford	10
	UCLA	19			UCLA	11
	California Baptist	14							UCLA	7
									USC	6
					California	10
	USC	18			USC	12
	Bucknell	9

Qualification

Automatic qualifications (AQ) were awarded to six conferences. Three conferences, the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) withdrew their automatic qualification. Participating in this year's tournament were teams from the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). Automatic qualification teams were Bucknell (CWPA), California Baptist (WWPA), and Stanford (MPSF). At-large bids were awarded to California, UCLA and USC from MPSF.

All-NCAA Tournament

First Team

• Jake Cavano, UCLA
• Jake Ehrhardt, USC
• Bernardo Maurizi, UCLA
• Jacob Mercep, USC
• Nicolas Saveljic, UCLA (MVP)

Second Team

• Tommy Gruwell, UCLA
• Carson Kranz, USC
• Nic Porter, USC

References

1. "2021 Winter Men's Varsity Polls – Week 8/March 17". collegiatewaterpolo.org. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
2. "2020 National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved March 21, 2021.