2024 NCAA Water Polo Championships
The highest-ranked UCLA Bruins males’s water polo group bested the USC Trojans to win the 2024 Nationwide Championship title on Sunday, pulling forward late within the sport to emerge victorious in an 11-8 remaining.
The win marked the thirteenth males’s NCAA water polo title in program historical past for UCLA and the 124th all-time for the college throughout all sports activities. The Bruins completed the season with a standout 26-2 document, together with going 4-1 towards the Trojans.
UCLA had seven completely different objective scorers within the sport, with freshman Ryder Dodd, redshirt junior Chase Dodd and graduate seniors Nico Tierney and Jack Larsen all hitting the board twice.
Additionally scoring was Frederico Juca Carsalade, Aaron Voggenthaler and Peter Castillo, whereas redshirt freshman Nate Tauscher made 10 saves in simply his third begin as a collegiate goalkeeper.
The sport was 2-2 after the primary quarter, and the 2 groups went to halftime deadlocked at 4-4, with R. Dodd scoring the a hundred and first objective of his freshman season within the second to tie the all-time MPSF single-season objectives document.
The Bruins pulled forward by one within the third, with Dodd scoring his record-breaking 102nd objective to provide them a 7-6 lead, after which they outscored the Trojans 4-2 within the fourth to seal the 11-8 victory.
Robert López Duart and Andrej Grgurevic scored twice for USC, whereas Max Miller, Tom McGuire and Luka Brnetic and Jack Martin additionally received on the board for the Trojans.
CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS:
The win additionally marked the fifth NCAA title for Adam Wright as UCLA head coach, with all 5 of his title wins coming towards USC. It’s Wright’s ninth title general after profitable twice as a participant (1999, 2000), as soon as as head coach of the ladies’s program (2024) and as soon as as an assistant coach on the ladies’s group (2009).
UCLA final gained the title in 2020 (championship held in March 2021), with Cal profitable the final three titles earlier than the Bruins’ triumph this 12 months. USC misplaced to Cal in back-to-back finals in 2021 and 2022 earlier than UCLA fell 13-11 to Cal within the 2023 remaining.
RECENT MEN’S NCAA WATER POLO CHAMPIONS
- 2024 – UCLA
- 2023 – Cal
- 2022 – Cal
- 2021 – Cal
- 2020 – UCLA
- 2019 – Stanford
- 2018 – USC
- 2017 – UCLA
- 2016 – Cal
- 2015 – UCL
After putting fourth on the MPSF Championships in November, Cal was not chosen to compete within the NCAA event.
USC, which gained six straight titles between 2008 and 2013, has now misplaced in 4 of the final 5 NCAA title video games, with their final championship coming again in 2018.
BOX SCORE
No. 2 USC vs. No. 1 UCLA (2024 NCAA Males’s Water Polo Championship – Stanford, Calif. – Sport 28)
| SCOREBOARD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
| No. 2 USC | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| No. 1 UCLA | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
6×5 – UCLA – 4/12 – USC – 3/8
Penalties – UCLA – 1/1 – USC – 0/0
USC Targets: Robert Lopez Duart 2, Andrej Grgurevic 2, Max Miller 1, Luka Brnetic 1, Tom McGuire 1, Jack Martin 1
USC Saves: Bernardo Herzer 9
UCLA Targets: Jack Larsen 2, Chase Dodd 2, Ryder Dodd 2, Nico Tierney 2, Frederico Jucá Carsalade 1, Aaron Voggenthaler 1, Peter Castillo 1
UCLA Saves: Nate Tauscher 10
