USC Men Finish Year Ranked #1 In The Nation

Dec. 11, 2013

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- For the sixth consecutive year, the National Championship plaque and the No. 1 ranking in the final poll of the season belong to the University of Southern California as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) releases the December 11/Week 14/Final Men's Varsity National Top 20 and Division III Top 10 Polls.

USC, which stopped the University of the Pacific by a 12-11 score in overtime at Stanford University's Avery Aquatic Center over the weekend to claim the program's sixth consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title, concludes the year as the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation. Overall, the Trojans lead a Top 20 which experienced few changes in the wake of the NCAA Championship and its preceding pair of play-in games.

In the Division III Top 10 Poll, Whittier College, which claimed the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) title three weeks ago and fell to Stanford University by a 20-3 final score in an NCAA play-in game last week, is joined at No. 1 by Johns Hopkins University as the Poets and Blue Jay share top-honors among small liberal arts colleges.

Voted on by a panel of coaches from the CWPA, Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the polls are compiled and released on Wednesday during each week of the season through the week following the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship.

2013 Men's Varsity National Top 20 (Week 14/Final)

For the sixth time in six years, the University of Southern Californiaconcludes the year as the No. 1 team in the nation as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion Trojans top the December 11/Week 14/Final National Top 20 Poll.

The Trojans wrap-up the year as the top-ranked team in seven of the poll's 14 in season weeks as USC topped the nation in the Preseason (August 28), Week 1 (September 11), Week 2 (September 18), Week 6 (October 16), Week 7 (October 23), Week 8 (October 30) and Week 13 (December 4) balloting.

Behind USC, the No. 2-to-9 positions remain unchanged as national runner-up the University of the Pacific (95 points), Stanford University (90 points), the University of California-Los Angeles (85 points), the University of California (80 points), Long Beach State University (75 points), theUniversity of California-Santa Barbara (71 points), the University of California-Irvine (64 points) andPepperdine University (58 points) retain their positions from last week.

The first change in the Top 20 occurs at No. 10 as Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) champion St. Francis College Brooklyn (56 points) breaks into the upper echelon of the Top 20 in the wake of a fourth place finish at the NCAA Championship hosted by Stanford. In the first of two NCAA play-in games, the Terriers took down Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) champion the University of California-San Diego (50 points) by a 6-5 final score as St. Francis and the Tritons exchange the No. 10 and 11 positions this week.

The University of California-Davis (43 points) remains at No. 12, while Concordia University (37 points) is joined by Santa Clara University (37 points) at No. 13.

Princeton University (31 points) slips back to No. 15, with Loyola Marymount University (27 points), the United States Naval Academy (20 points), Bucknell University (14 points), Brown University (9 points) and the United States Air Force Academy (5 points) concluding the Top 20.

California Baptist University (3 points), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) champion Whittier College (2 points) and Harvard University (1 point) also received votes.

2013 Men's Varsity Division III Top 10 (Week 14/Final)

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) championWhittier College and Johns Hopkins University both register 97 points to share the No. 1 position in the December 11/Week 14/Final Division III Top 10 Poll of the 2013 season.

The Poets, which fell to Stanford University by a 20-3 final score in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship play-in game, and the Blue Jays conclude the season with an eight-point lead over the rest of the Division III field as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (89 points) continues at No. 3 for another week.

The University of Redlands (84 points) sticks at No. 4, with Pomona- Pitzer Colleges (80 points) completing the Top Five.

Chapman University (74 points) continues at No. 6, with California Lutheran University (70 points), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (68 points), the University of La Verne (46 points) and Washington & Jefferson College(36 points) remaining the standard at No. 7-to-10.

Occidental College (23 points) and Connecticut College (11 points) also receive votes this week.