USA Water Polo

Stanford In First Place In Women's Varsity Top 20 Pre-Season Poll

1/6/2012 12:00:00 AM

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The champions of 2011 return for another try at the National Championship in 2012 as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) released the 2012 Women's Varsity Preseason National Top 20, Division III Top 10, CWPA Division I/II Top 10 and CWPA Division III Top Five to begin the new season of intercollegiate competition.

The names at the top of the preseason rankings are familiar as Stanford University (National Top 20), University of Redlands (Division III Top 10),Indiana University (CWPA Division I/II Top 10) and Grove City College (CWPA Division III Top Five) finished the 2011 season on top of a poll and will look to conclude the 2012 campaign in the same manner.

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), Big West Conference, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) 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.

2012 Women's Varsity National Top 20

Another year, another No. 1 preseason ranking for the Cardinal of Stanford University as the 2011 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) National Champion garnered 100 points to begin the year at No. 1 in the 2012 Preseason Women's Varsity National Top 20 Poll.

A unanimous No. 1 selection this year with 100 points, it marks the second year in a row that the Cardinal will begin the season with the top spot in the polls as Stanford topped the 2011 preseason poll with 98 points.

Similar to past seasons, the preseason rankings do not stray far from the final results of the previous season as the University of California (94 points), which ranked at No. 2 last year, holds onto the spot entering 2012.  The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) are tied at No. 3 with 89 points after the Bruins and Women of Troy placed third and fourth, respectively, in the final poll of last season.

San Jose State University (76 points), University of California-Irvine (73 points), Arizona State University (69 points), San Diego State University(59 points), University of Hawaii (52 points) and Indiana Univeristy (51 points) round out the Top 10 as nine of the 10 teams in the final 2011 poll's Top 10 rank in the upper echelon once again.

Loyola Marymount University (47 points), University of Michigan (45 points), Hartwick College (39 points), Long Beach State University (33 points) and University of California-San Diego (32 points) rate at No. 11-to-15, respectively, with University of California-Davis (29 points), University of California-Santa Barbara (19 points), Princeton University (18 points), California State University-Northridge (16 points) and University of Maryland (10 points) completing the Top 20.

Iona College (5 points), Colorado State University (5 points), University of the Pacific (3 points), Santa Clara University (3 points), California Baptist University (1 point) and Harvard University (1 point) also received votes, but missed out on cracking the Top 20.

2012 Women's Varsity Division III Top 10

The University of Redlands, which captured the 2011 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) title, will open defense of its championship with the title of the best small college program in the nation as the Bulldogs enter the 2012 season with the No. 1 ranking in the Women's Varsity Division III Top 10.

Redlands, which garnered 94 points, concluded the 2011 season at No. 1 in the nation and will seek to repeat the feat in 2012.

However, the Bulldogs will need to fend off both league and  non-league foes to retain the ranking as several programs are favored to move up and challenge Redlands this year.

Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (92 points) and Occidental College (91 points) begin the new season at No. 2 and 3, respectively, in the poll, whileClaremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (87 points) and California Lutheran University (85 points) rank at No. 4 and 5.

Whittier College (75 points), Chapman University (68 points), University of La Verne (63 points), Grove City College (63 points) and Carthage College (22 points) round out the Top 10, with Washington & Jefferson College (13 points), Wheaton College (11 points) and the California Institute of Technology (11 points) receiving votes.

2012 Women's CWPA Division I/II Top 10

For the first time since 2004, a team other than the University of Michigan or Hartwick College will start the 2012 season on top of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division I/II Preseason Top 10 Poll as defending CWPA Eastern ChampionIndiana University garnered 96 points to top the rankings.

Indiana, which started the 2004 season at No. 1 in the league on the heels of the program's first CWPA Eastern Championship in 2003, is coming off a 5-3 defeat of Michigan at the 2011 CWPA Eastern Championship at home in Bloomington, Ind. and a sixth place finish at the NCAA Championship with eyes on returning to the NCAA Championship in 2012.

To return to the NCAA Championship this year, the Hoosiers will once again need to run a gauntlet of potential league champions as Hartwick (93 points) enters the new season ranked second in the league, with Michigan and Princeton University tied for the third position with 90 points.

The University of Maryland (80 points), Harvard University (75 points), Bucknell University (69 points), Brown University (66 points), George Washington University (60 points) and Mercyhurst College (56 points) complete the Top 10.

2012 Women's CWPA Division III Top 5

The top team in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Top 5 remains unchanged from the final poll of the 2011 season as Grove City College garnered 100 points to rank as the unanimous No. 1 pick in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Preseason Top Five Poll.

The 2010 and 2011 CWPA Division III champion, as the league's Division III members elected to philosophically separate from the Division I/II programs two seasons ago to contest their own championship, Grove City will need to hold off a series of challenges to claim the program's third consecutive crown in 2012.

Carthage College (91 points) moves up to No. 2 after completing the 2011 campaign tied for No. 4 in the final poll, while Wheaton College (90 points), Washington & Jefferson College (89 points) and Macalester College (80 points) round out the Top Five teams in the league.

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