UCSB’s men’s water polo team reached its highest standing of the season in the national NCAA rankings released on Wednesday, gaining four places after finishing second at last weekend’s SoCal Tournament.
The Gaucho water polo team reached its highest ranking of the season in Wednesday’s NCAA poll.
Following a tournament in which the Gauchos defeated then No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 Stanford, UCSB takes over the No. 2 position in the country after undefeated USC.
The Trojans (14-0) defeated the Gauchos in the SoCal Tournament championship 14-5.
UCLA dropped to No. 3 and Stanford fell to No. 5. UC Irvine moves up one position to No. 4. The previous No. 4, Cal, fell to No. 7.
It’s the highest ranking for UCSB’s men’s water this season.
In fact, the last time UCSB was ranked as high as second nationally was following its national championship in 1979 when it finished the year ranked No. 1. This is also the first time that the Gauchos have cracked the nation’s top-four under the tutelage of head coach Wolf Wigo. The last time UCSB garnered a top-four ranking was in October 2004.
Moving forward, UCSB (12-3) hosts its alumni game on Saturday followed by non-conference matches with Iona and Harvard on Sunday. After Harvard, the Gauchos will resume MPSF competition with rematches against Stanford and UCLA in successive contests.
NCAA RANKINGS (10/3/2012)
RANK SCHOOL PREVIOUS POINTS 1 USC 1 100 2 UCSB 6 94 3 UCLA 2 92 4 UC-Irvine 5 84 5 Stanford 3 82 6 Pacific 8 75 7 California 4 71 8 Pepperdine 7 65 9 LMU 10 60 10 Long Beach St. 9 55 11 UC San Diego 11 50 12 Brown 13 43 13 Air Fore 14 37 14 Navy 15 34 15 St. Francis 19 30 16 Princeton 16 26 17 UC Davis 12 25 18 Santa Clara 17 13 19 California Baptist 18 11 20 Concordia (Calif.) 20 6 Others receiving votes:?Pomona-Pitzer.
