The 2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from December 4–5, 2021 in Los Angeles, California at the Spieker Aquatics Center. This was the 53rd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Seven teams participated in this championship. Opening round game-one was played at Princeton University. The UCLA Bruins were the defending national champions and the 2021 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) champions. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 University of California, No. 2 University of Southern California, No. 3 University of California Los Angeles, No. 4 Stanford University, No. 5 Long Beach State University.

Schedule All times are Eastern time November 27December 2December 4December 5 Opening Round Game 1 Opening Round Games 2 & 3 Semifinals Championship 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.

Bracket The championship featured a knockout format where schools that lost were eliminated from the tournament. The championship pairings were announced on Sunday, November 21, 2021 by the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee.

Qualification Top ranked teams from five conferences received automatic qualification (AQ). The conferences are the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The two at-large teams, without geographical restrictions, came from MPSF: UCLA and Southern California.

Teams GCCLong Beach State22–5MAWPCFordham24–6MPSFCalifornia 20–4MPSFUCLA 19–3MPSFUSC 17–2NWPCPrinceton 25–7WWPAUC Davis 17–2

All-NCAA Tournament Team

After the championship, the All-NCAA Tournament First and Second teams were announced. First Team Max Casabella (Cal) Hannes Daube (USC) Jack Deely (Cal) Jacob Mercep (USC) Ashworth Molthen (USC) Nikolaos Papanikolaou (MVP, Cal) Adrian Weinberg (Cal) Second Team Nic Porter (USC) Nikos Delagrammatikas (Cal) Nir Gross (UC Davis) Aleix Aznar Beltran (UC Davis)

Awards Gabe Discipulo (UCLA) was awarded the Elite 90 Award (highest GPA).

References