2023 Fordham University Men’s Water Polo Schedule
BRONX, N.Y. — The two-time defending Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) champion Fordham University Rams have released their 2023 schedule for the upcoming water polo season. The schedule is slated to be one of the most challenging to date, featuring nine contests against ranked opponents from the final poll of 2022, including defending national champion the University of California.
Fordham opens the season in Providence, R.I., at the Bruno Classic on Saturday-Sunday, September 2-3, hosted by Brown University. The Rams kick off the Classic against Pepperdine University, who ranked No. 13 in the country in the final 2022 poll, for the first of two meetings on the year. The Rams will also face off with Augustana College, Iona University and Brown in the opening weekend.
Week two will have Fordham’s annual trip to the Princeton Invitational on Saturday-Sunday, September 9-10, at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. After a match-up with Chapman University to open the Invitational, the Rams take on Harvard University and defending Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion/hot Princeton on day two. Harvard ended last season No. 17 in the country, while Princeton was No. 7. The Fordham-Princeton game will hold some additional meaning for the Rams as Princeton defeated Fordham at home in DeNunzio Pool during National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament play courtesy an over-time victory. It marked the second time in as many years Princeton topped Fordham in NCAA Championship competition.
The Rams then make another annual trip Lewisburg, Pa., for Bucknell University’s Bison Invitational on Saturday-Sunday, September 16-17. Fordham will contest four MAWPC games during the weekend as the squad faces the host Bison, Johns Hopkins University, Wagner College and Mount St. Mary’s University. League play continues on the road two weeks later with matches at George Washington University (Saturday, September 30) in Washington, D.C., the United States Naval Academy (Saturday, September 30) in Annapolis, Md., and Johns Hopkins (Sunday, October 1) in Baltimore, Md.
Fordham will contest its first home games on October 4 and 14, when the Rams host Wagner and Navy, respectively, at the Messmore Aquatic Center.
A trip to the West Coast is slated for Wednesday-Sunday, October 18-22, as Fordham heads out to California. The adventure begins with a road game at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., on Wednesday, October 18, as the Rams and Tigers will face off for the second consecutive year. The Tigers concluded the 2022 campaign at No. 5 in the nation.
A journey to Berkeley, Calif., to take on defending National Champion California on Thursday, October 19, marks the second time that the Rams will travel to Berkeley with the last being in 1986 for the Golden Bears Invitational. It will also be the second time that Fordham will take on the defending national champion, as the Rams also did so in 1986 by competing against 1985 champion Stanford University at California.
The West Coast trip concludes with Fordham taking part in the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament on Friday-Sunday, October 20-22, hosted by Santa Clara University and San Jose State University in Santa Clara and San Jose, Calif. All four matches in the tournament are against teams that finished 2022 in the National Top 20 Poll, including San Jose State (October 30), California Baptist University (October 21), Santa Clara (October 21), and Pepperdine (October 22).
The Rams then return home to Bronx for five home matches against league foes George Washington (Saturday, October 28), Mount St. Mary’s (October 28) and Bucknell (Sunday, October. 29) prior to the annual non-conference Judge Cup clash with New York metro rival Iona University (Wednesday, November 1). The final home match is an exhibition against the New York Athletic Club on Friday, November 3.
The regular season for Fordham concludes on the road with non-conference matches at Connecticut College (Friday, November 10) and Brown (Saturday, November 11).
The team will aim to make history at the 2023 MAWPC Championship on Friday-Sunday, November 17-19, at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium, as the Rams will look for their third consecutive championship and another NCAA Championship berth. Historically, no East Coast men’s water polo team has claimed back-to-back-to-back league championships in the sport since Navy achieved the feat in 2006, 2007 and 2008 as part of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) prior to the split of the league into the Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) and MAWPC. Among active MAWPC member programs, Navy (1986-1988; 2006-2008) and Bucknell (1977-1980) are the lone programs to capture three consecutive league titles- all while part of the CWPA. Former varsity program the University of Massachusetts (1993-1996) is tied with Bucknell (1977-to-1980) for the most consecutive championships with four by any current/former MAWPC/NWPC program.
