With just four Week 5 upsets and just one involving a Top 10 team, it is no surprise that the rankings stayed relatively calm.
#1 Stanford (11-1) held down the top spot for the second straight week after besting #3 Pacific 11-8 on Sunday with help from hat tricks by Tyler Abramson and AJ Rossman.
The Cardinal are followed by #2 UCLA and #3 Pacific, who maintain their poll positions from a week ago. USC and UC Santa Barbara swapped spots, checking in a #4 and #5 respectively after the Trojans avenged their Sept. 15 loss to the Gauchos with a 10-9 win on Sunday. Jake Erhardt put int he game winner for USC with 6:48 to play in the fourth quarter, but it was Jacob Mercep to paced the team offensively, notching a hat trick.
The only other movement in the Top 10 saw Harvard climb two spots from #12 to #10, bumping Loyola Marymount and UC Davis, who were tied for 10th last week to #11 and #12 respectively. The Crimson went 3-0 last week, topping #18 Princeton 12-9, #17 St. Francis Brooklyn 17-15 and Iona 19-9. Dennis Blyashov netted 13 goals on the weekend to lead the Harvard attack.
Fordham was the biggest mover of the week, jumping back into the Top 20 at #17 after a week among the vote getters. The Rams downed #16 Cal Baptist 11-10 in overtime thanks to hat tricks by Jake Miller-Tolt and Dimitris Koukias. Miller-Tolt sealed the upset, sinking a penalty shot with 37 seconds left in the second overtime stanza.
Cal Baptist kept its spot in the Top 20 but fell from #16 to the #20 position after going 1-3 at the Gary Troyer Tournament. The Lancers fell to RV Fordham (11-10 OT), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (8-7) and #18 Pomona-Pitzer (10-7), but topped #20 Whittier (12-11).
Whittier fell out of the Top 20, dropping to a spot among the five vote getters outside of the poll.
Santa Clara and Navy each were mentioned among the vote getters on in this week’s poll. The Broncos went 4-0 at the Gary Troyer Tournament, besting Cal Lutheran (14-5), Wagner (13-11), La Verne (17-12) and Occidental (18-10), moving to 8-4 on the year. Navy is back among the vote getters after a 4-0 weekend, besting Air Force (13-12), Chapman (19-11), Redlands (13-11) and Concordia (Irvine)(13-11) to move to 11-6.
Week 6 action begins at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday when #1 Stanford takes on RV Santa Clara.
Oct. 9 | #1 Stanford at RV Santa Clara | 7 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats |
Cal Tech at Occidental | 10 p.m. | Watch | ||
Chapman at RV Whittier | 10 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats | |
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at #18 Pomona-Pitzer | 10 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats | |
La Verne at Redlands | 10 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats |
Collegiate Water Polo Men’s Top 20
Rank | Team | Week 4 Poll | Points |
1 | Stanford University | 1 | 98 |
2 | University of California-Los Angeles | 2 | 94 |
3 | University of the Pacific | 3 | 88 |
4 | University of Southern California | 5 | 87 |
5 | University of California-Santa Barbara | 4 | 82 |
6 | University of California | 6 | 74 |
7 | Pepperdine University | 7 | 70 |
8 | Long Beach State University | 8 | 65 |
9 | University of California-San Diego | 9 | 58 |
10 | Harvard University | 12 | 54 |
11 | Loyola Marymount University | 10 (T) | 51 |
12 | University of California-Davis | 10 (T) | 41 |
13 | University of California-Irvine | 13 | 37 |
14 | George Washington University | 15 | 29 |
15 | Bucknell University | 14 | 27 |
16 | St. Francis College Brooklyn | 17 | 23 |
17 | Fordham University | RV | 21 |
18 | Pomona-Pitzer Colleges | 18 (T) | 20 |
19 | Princeton University | 18 (T) | 13 |
20 | California Baptist University | 16 | 10 |
RV | San Jose State University | RV | 6 |
RV | Whittier College | 20 | 4 |
RV | Santa Clara University | NR | 2 |
RV | United States Naval Academy | NR | 1 |
RV | Brown University | RV | 1 |