USA Water Polo

2011 NCAA Champions USC Take Top Spot In Final Men's Varsity Poll

12/7/2011 12:00:00 AM

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion the University of Southern California finishes the year where it began its quest for a fourth consecutive national championship at No. 1 as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) released the Week 14/Final Men's Varsity Top 20 Poll for the 2011 season.

It marks the last poll of the season and calendar year as the final Division III standings were released last week.

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 the season through the week following the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship.

2011 Men's Varsity National Top 20

The University of Southern California (100 points) wraps up the 2011 men's season by coming full-circle as the 2011 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Champion Trojans are the unanimous No. 1 selection in the Week 14/Final Men's Varsity Top 20 Poll.

Ranked at No. 1 in the Preseason, September 7, September 14, September 21, September 28, November 9, November 16 and November 23 polls, the Trojans were one of three teams to hold the top spot in the balloting this season.

Joining USC at the top of the poll during the season were Stanford University (October 5, October 12) and theUniversity of California-Los Angeles (October 19, October 26, November 2,  November 9, November 16, November 30) as West Coast teams from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) dominated the No. 1-4 positions in the poll all season.

USC, which ranked at No. 1 or No. 2 in 13 of the 14 polls released during the season, claimed its fourth consecutive NCAA title over the weekend at theUniversity of California-Berkeley via a 7-4 victory over then No. 1-ranked UCLA to reclaim the No. 1 position in the rankings.

UCLA (95 points) slips to No. 2 to mark one of only two changes in the Top 10 this week as California (91 points), Stanford (85 points), University of California-Irvine (79 points), University of the Pacific (76 points), University of California-Santa Barbara (71 points), Pepperdine University (66 points) and Long Beach State University (59 points) continue to rank at No. 3-to-9, respectively.

The biggest mover of the week is Princeton University (56 points) which jumps three spots to No. 10 on the strength of a 9-7 victory over former No. 10-ranked University of California-San Diego in the NCAA Championship Third Place game over the weekend.

Princeton's ascension into the Top 10 causes a shift at No. 11-to-13 as UC-San Diego (50 points), University of California-Davis (45 points) and Loyola Marymount University (40 points) slide to No. 11-to-13, respectively.

The final seven positions in the Top 20 remain unchanged with Concordia University (32 points), the United States Naval Academy (28 points), Santa Clara University (27 points), St. Francis College (20 points), California Baptist University (17 points), Brown University (11 points) and the United States Air Force Academy (6 points) clinging to No. 14-to-20.

Bucknell University (1 point) and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (1 point) complete the team's receiving votes.

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