USA Water Polo

Stanford Cardinal Take Top Spot In Women's Varsity Pre-Season Poll

1/12/2011 12:00:00 AM

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Stanford University and Occidental College will enter the season with No. 1 national rankings as the Cardinal and Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the Women's Varsity Top 20 and Division III Top 10 polls released today by the Collegiate Water Polo Association. In the CWPA polls, defending conference champion the University of Michigan and Grove City College are rated at No. 1 in the league's Division I and Division III polls, respectively.

Voted on by a panel of coaches and administrators from around the country during the preseason and each week of the season based on the cumulative results of each team, the Varsity Top 20, Division III Top 10 and Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 10 polls are released on Wednesday during the season until the week following the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship.

Women's Varsity Top 20

Similar to the 2010 season, Stanford University will begin the women's varsity season on top of the National Top 20 rankings.  Stanford, which fell to the University of Southern California (USC) in the national title game last year, will seek to finish the season where they begin as the Cardinal tallied 98 points to edge out USC (97 points) by a single point. 

California dominates the Top 10 in the poll as the University of California, the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Loyola Marymount University, San Jose State University and San Diego State University all earned spots in the top half of the rankings rating at No. 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10, respectively.

The remaining spots in the poll belong to the University of HawaiiUniversity of Michigan (No. 8) and Arizona State University (No. 9).  Among the teams in the Top 10, only Arizona State is a newcomer as the Sun Devils concluded the 2010 season at No. 11, but moved in front of San Diego State and the University of California-Irvine which wrapped up the 2010 campaign tied for ninth. (No. 5), the

In the final 10 positions in the Top 20, UC-Irvine ranks at No. 11, with the University of California-Santa Barbara, Indiana University, Hartwick College and California State University-Northridge taking the No. 12-15 positions. 

Princeton University, the University of California-Davis, University of the Pacific, University of California-San Diego and California State University-Bakersfield round out the Top 20 entering the new season.

Women's Varsity Division III Top 10

Occidental College rises from No. 3 in the final 2010 poll to take over at No. 1 in the 2011 Women's Division III Top 10 as the Tigers garnered 98 points to edge out Pomona-Pitzer CollegesUniversity of Redlands (No. 3, 88 points). (No. 2, 94 points) and the

California Lutheran University, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, Whittier College and Chapman UniversityCarthage College of Illinois and Grove City College of Pennsylvania mark the first non-Golden State programs to crack the Top 10. complete an All-California first seven in the poll, as

University of La Verne completes the Top 10, with Macalester College, Wheaton College and Washington & Jefferson College receiving votes to miss out on cracking the poll.

Women's Varsity CWPA Division I Top 10

The University of Michigan will begin the 2011 season in a familiar position - on top of the Collegiate Water Polo Association rankings - as the three-time defending CWPA Eastern Champions are a unanimous selection for the top position in the CWPA Division I Preseason Poll.

Indiana University, which fell to the Wolverines in last year's Eastern title game, will open the season in the No. 2 position, while Hartwick College, Princeton University and the University of Maryland round out the Top Five.

Harvard University rates at No. 6, while Brown University and Bucknell University are tied for seventh, with Mercyhurst College and George Washington University completing the first league poll of the year.

Women's Varsity CWPA Division III Top 5

Defending confernece champion Grove City College will start the season on top of the CWPA Division III standings as the team earned 97 points to edge out Carthage College in the Preseason Top Five Poll.

Grove City, which defeated Carthage 8-7 to win the first-ever Division III Eastern Championship last season following the split of the women's CWPA varsity teams into Division and Division III brackets, moves up from the final poll of 2010 as Carthage moved in front due to its performance at the National Division III Championship.

Wheaton College and Washington & Jefferson College retain their positions from the final poll at No. 3 and 4, respectively, while Macalester College breaks into the Top Five.  Connecticut College, which was ranked fifth in the last poll of 2010, slips out of Top Five into the "Receiving Votes" category.

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