Collegiate Water Polo Association Releases 2021 Women’s Varsity Week 12/April 28 Top 25, Division III Top 5 & CWPA Top 4 Polls

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The University of Southern California remains the top-ranked team in women’s water polo as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) releases the 2021 Week 12/April 28 Women’s Varsity National Top 25, Division III Top 5 and CWPA Top 4 Polls. 

The University of Michigan and California Lutheran University maintain top billing in the CWPA Division I Top Four and Division III Top Five Polls, respectively.

Voted on by a panel of coaches from the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), the Golden Coast Conference, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the Big West Conference, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and the CWPA based on the cumulative results of the season, the polls are compiled and released on Wednesday during the season.

2021 Women’s Varsity National Top 25 (Week 12/April 28)

The University of Southern California stays at No. 1 in the Week 12/April 28 Women’s Varsity Top 25 Poll.

USC (98 points), which dropped a 13-6 game at the University of California-Los Angeles in the Trojans’ regular season finale on April 25,  retains its status as the No. 1 pick, while UCLA (94 points) pulls even with Stanford University (94 points) to force a tie at No. 2.

The University of California (88 points), Arizona State University (84 points) and the University of Hawaii (80 points) stick at No. 4-to-6, respectively, with the pair of the University of Michigan (73 points) and the University of California-Irvine (73 points) remaining tied at No. 7.

The University of California-San Diego (66 points) leapfrogs the University of California-Davis (65 points) as the Tritons and Aggies trade the No. 9 and 10 spots for the second time in as many weeks.

Fresno State University (62 points) hangs on at No. 11, while San Diego State University (55 points), University of the Pacific (51 points) and Indiana University (49 points) readjust to stand at No. 12-to-14.

Long Beach State University (45 points), San Jose State University (41 points), California Baptist University (35 points), Loyola Marymount University (32 points), Azusa Pacific University (26 points) and Bucknell University (22 points) remain at No. 15-to-20, respectively, with Marist College (20 points) and Santa Clara University (17 points) exchanging the No. 21 and 22 positions.

Long Island University (10 points) inches in front of La Salle University (8 points) to take over at No. 23.

The final position in the Top 25 is a five-way tie with Iona College (2 points), Salem University (2 points), Austin College (2 points), Concordia University (2 points) and Saint Francis University (2 points) sharing the position.

2021 Women’s Varsity Division III Top 5 (Week 6/April 28)

California Lutheran University retains its ranking at No. 1 in the Week 6/April 28 Women’s Varsity Division III Top 5 Poll.

The Division III rankings are unique for 2021 as Cal Lutheran, Chapman University and the University of Redlands of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) elected to compete, while the California Institute of Technology, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, Occidental College, the University of La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges and Whittier College are taking off the season due to the pandemic.  In the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Connecticut College, Macalester College, Utica College and Washington & Jefferson College are competing in minimal schedules and Monmouth College is taking off the season prior to eliminating women’s water polo following the 2020-21 academic year. Austin College, Carthage College, Grove City College, Penn State Behrend and Wittenberg University will contest full CWPA Division III league seasons.

Due to the number of teams competing, the normally Division III Top 10 poll was cut down to five teams to maintain proportionality between the number of competing programs and national ranking size.

Cal Lutheran (97 points) hangs on at No. 1 for another seven-day run, while Austin (95 points) – which claimed the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Championship – stays at No. 2.

Redlands (71 points), Chapman (70 points) and Macalester (68 points) complete the Top Five.

2021 Women’s Varsity Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 4 (Week 12/April 28/FINAL)

The University of Michigan concludes the year as the top team in the water and in the final league poll as the 2021 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division I Champion Wolverines are No. 1 in the 2021 CWPA Division I Week 12/April 28/Final Top Four Poll as a unanimous No. 1 selection.

Michigan (100 points) holds a five point lead over runner-up Bucknell University (95 points), while Saint Francis University (90 points) and first-year varsity program Mount St. Mary’s University (85 points) complete the Top 4.