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.
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.
Seed Team Conference Bid type Appearance1 UCLA MPSF At-large 39th2 Southern California MPSF Automatic 39th3 Fordham MAWPC Automatic 4th4 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 December 6December 6December 7December 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.
All Tournament Team After the championship, the All-NCAA Tournament First and Second teams were announced.
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