[M T]

Sadly, Stanford has lost 2 games each to USC and UCLA, half of which were close games.
But Stanford continues to dominate the other teams.  
Stanford has beaten then #5 SJSU 12-5, then #2 Cal 12-8, then #6 UC Davis 18-12, and (today) #5 Fordham 19-10 (Fordham had just lost by one goal to #4 Cal)

As I watched the live stats of the Fordham game today, I noticed a pattern in the names of Fordham's players.  So, I checked their roster and found that 14 players were from outside of the U.S. and 9 were from the U.S.  In 2024, there were 9 Fordham players that played in all 33 games; none were from the U.S.   I believe this board had noted the ASU WWP had the same mixture, so I checked:  14 non-US, 10 US.  Stanford MWP is 8 non-US, 15 US.  Stanford WWP is 4 non-US, 19 US. 

Water polo is much more an international sport than many NCAA sports.  Using foreign players is a way a school can easily improve their standing in the NCAA tournament.   But, that does have an impact on the athletic scholarships available to US student-athletes.  In a sport like water polo, that quickly evaporates a small pool of scholarships.

[M T]

Sadly, Stanford has lost 2 games each to USC and UCLA, half of which were close games.
But Stanford continues to dominate the other teams.  
Stanford has beaten then #5 SJSU 12-5, then #2 Cal 12-8, then #6 UC Davis 18-12, and (today) #5 Fordham 19-10 (Fordham had just lost by one goal to #4 Cal)

As I watched the live stats of the Fordham game today, I noticed a pattern in the names of Fordham's players.  So, I checked their roster and found that 14 players were from outside of the U.S. and 9 were from the U.S.  In 2024, there were 9 Fordham players that played in all 33 games; none were from the U.S.   I believe this board had noted the ASU WWP had the same mixture, so I checked:  14 non-US, 10 US.  Stanford MWP is 8 non-US, 15 US.  Stanford WWP is 4 non-US, 19 US. 

Water polo is much more an international sport than many NCAA sports.  Using foreign players is a way a school can easily improve their standing in the NCAA tournament.   But, that does have an impact on the athletic scholarships available to US student-athletes.  In a sport like water polo, that quickly evaporates a small pool of scholarships.

[BostonCard]

Will be interesting to see if that evolves in the current political environment.

BC

[BostonCard]

Will be interesting to see if that evolves in the current political environment.

BC

[Gary86]

I have been a fan of Stanford water polo since 1980 and you never use to see foreigners on rosters . USC was the first school that started bringing in Europeans  around
maybe 20 years ago or so and they ran off a string of national championships. Other schools besides Stanford followed suit in order to compete. Stanford under their new coach has recruited Europeans and they are fantastic players. I watched the National semi final between USC and Fordham last year when Fordham almost became the first non California team to make the Championship game and I don't believe they played a single American. The  foreigners have raised the level of play but it has gotten a little out of hand. It's not just about scholarships but also about the favorable treatment that recruited athletes get by the admissions departments of some very selective universities.

[Gary86]

I have been a fan of Stanford water polo since 1980 and you never use to see foreigners on rosters . USC was the first school that started bringing in Europeans  around
maybe 20 years ago or so and they ran off a string of national championships. Other schools besides Stanford followed suit in order to compete. Stanford under their new coach has recruited Europeans and they are fantastic players. I watched the National semi final between USC and Fordham last year when Fordham almost became the first non California team to make the Championship game and I don't believe they played a single American. The  foreigners have raised the level of play but it has gotten a little out of hand. It's not just about scholarships but also about the favorable treatment that recruited athletes get by the admissions departments of some very selective universities.

[BostonCard]

Stanford is now 12-0 against teams not named UCLA or USC, and 0-6 against those two teams, culminating with a heartbreaking 12-13 triple overtime loss to UCLA yesterday.  Three of the six losses were by one goal, two in overtime.

BC

[BostonCard]

Stanford is now 12-0 against teams not named UCLA or USC, and 0-6 against those two teams, culminating with a heartbreaking 12-13 triple overtime loss to UCLA yesterday.  Three of the six losses were by one goal, two in overtime.

BC

[fullmetal]

I have been a fan of Stanford water polo since 1980 and you never use to see foreigners on rosters . USC was the first school that started bringing in Europeans  around
maybe 20 years ago or so and they ran off a string of national championships. Other schools besides Stanford followed suit in order to compete. Stanford under their new coach has recruited Europeans and they are fantastic players. I watched the National semi final between USC and Fordham last year when Fordham almost became the first non California team to make the Championship game and I don't believe they played a single American. The  foreigners have raised the level of play but it has gotten a little out of hand. It's not just about scholarships but also about the favorable treatment that recruited athletes get by the admissions departments of some very selective universities.

The same effect is starting to be seen in collegiate rowing, though this started in the early 90s, took hold at certain programs in the 00s, and over the last ten years, has become a nation-wide phenomenon.  To the benefit of rowing, many nations producing top junior talent are also English-speaking, so there's less of an issue in admitting students who are truly college-ready and well-adapted to campus life.

[fullmetal]

I have been a fan of Stanford water polo since 1980 and you never use to see foreigners on rosters . USC was the first school that started bringing in Europeans  around
maybe 20 years ago or so and they ran off a string of national championships. Other schools besides Stanford followed suit in order to compete. Stanford under their new coach has recruited Europeans and they are fantastic players. I watched the National semi final between USC and Fordham last year when Fordham almost became the first non California team to make the Championship game and I don't believe they played a single American. The  foreigners have raised the level of play but it has gotten a little out of hand. It's not just about scholarships but also about the favorable treatment that recruited athletes get by the admissions departments of some very selective universities.

The same effect is starting to be seen in collegiate rowing, though this started in the early 90s, took hold at certain programs in the 00s, and over the last ten years, has become a nation-wide phenomenon.  To the benefit of rowing, many nations producing top junior talent are also English-speaking, so there's less of an issue in admitting students who are truly college-ready and well-adapted to campus life.

[M T]

A reminder:  The MPSF Men's Water Polo tournament is happening at Stanford this weekend.  This tournament will decide whether Stanford is invited to the NCAA Championships (at Stanford) and what seeding they may have.

Stanford has a 2nd round match Friday at 5:30PM and likely a match against USC at 3PM on Saturday.   If you're going to the football game, you can watch the MWP game in its entirety and still make the kickoff.   Sunday's game times and opponent will depend upon Saturday's results.


With MBB, WSoc and the MPSF MWP tourney all going on within a couple of hundred yards of each other tonight, parking will be a mess. And of course Saturday will be a bigger mess for parking.

[M T]

A reminder:  The MPSF Men's Water Polo tournament is happening at Stanford this weekend.  This tournament will decide whether Stanford is invited to the NCAA Championships (at Stanford) and what seeding they may have.

Stanford has a 2nd round match Friday at 5:30PM and likely a match against USC at 3PM on Saturday.   If you're going to the football game, you can watch the MWP game in its entirety and still make the kickoff.   Sunday's game times and opponent will depend upon Saturday's results.


With MBB, WSoc and the MPSF MWP tourney all going on within a couple of hundred yards of each other tonight, parking will be a mess. And of course Saturday will be a bigger mess for parking.

[Nobadeer]

Trying to remember if any LSJU players are lefties? Can't hurt to have at least one.

Anyway, LSJU beat Augustana 25-7 this evening. 

Earlier, USC beat Austin College 24-5 . . . Cal beat Johns Hopkins 26-4.  . . . And UCLA . . . beat a college called "Penn State Behrend" by  . .  36-4. The Bruins attempted 43 shots, and 36 went in. Ryder Dodd scored only 3, giving him 85 on the season. So you can see where this is all heading. The 4 Cali schools, as always, competing for probably 3 NCAA slots?

As MT predicted, LSJU faces USC at 3 pm tomorrow. I remember decrying USC's Euro-laden roster on The Bootleg back in the early 2000s, describing USC as the "Univ. of Southern Croatia." Well, everyone including LSJU has many foreign born players on the roster now.

Go LSJU!

[Nobadeer]

Trying to remember if any LSJU players are lefties? Can't hurt to have at least one.

Anyway, LSJU beat Augustana 25-7 this evening. 

Earlier, USC beat Austin College 24-5 . . . Cal beat Johns Hopkins 26-4.  . . . And UCLA . . . beat a college called "Penn State Behrend" by  . .  36-4. The Bruins attempted 43 shots, and 36 went in. Ryder Dodd scored only 3, giving him 85 on the season. So you can see where this is all heading. The 4 Cali schools, as always, competing for probably 3 NCAA slots?

As MT predicted, LSJU faces USC at 3 pm tomorrow. I remember decrying USC's Euro-laden roster on The Bootleg back in the early 2000s, describing USC as the "Univ. of Southern Croatia." Well, everyone including LSJU has many foreign born players on the roster now.

Go LSJU!

[Jamesy]

Trying to remember if any LSJU players are lefties? Can't hurt to have at least one.

Anyway, LSJU beat Augustana 25-7 this evening. 

Earlier, USC beat Austin College 24-5 . . . Cal beat Johns Hopkins 26-4.  . . . And UCLA . . . beat a college called "Penn State Behrend" by  . .  36-4. The Bruins attempted 43 shots, and 36 went in. Ryder Dodd scored only 3, giving him 85 on the season. So you can see where this is all heading. The 4 Cali schools, as always, competing for probably 3 NCAA slots?

As MT predicted, LSJU faces USC at 3 pm tomorrow. I remember decrying USC's Euro-laden roster on The Bootleg back in the early 2000s, describing USC as the "Univ. of Southern Croatia." Well, everyone including LSJU has many foreign born players on the roster now.

Go LSJU!

Assuming the LA schools beat the Bay Area schools today, I'm guessing the 3rd place Stanford-Cal game tomorrow will be for a spot in the NCAA tournament. That's a shame since we beat Cal twice in the regular season. Should really just have a four team tournament and skip the regular season I guess.

[Jamesy]

Trying to remember if any LSJU players are lefties? Can't hurt to have at least one.

Anyway, LSJU beat Augustana 25-7 this evening. 

Earlier, USC beat Austin College 24-5 . . . Cal beat Johns Hopkins 26-4.  . . . And UCLA . . . beat a college called "Penn State Behrend" by  . .  36-4. The Bruins attempted 43 shots, and 36 went in. Ryder Dodd scored only 3, giving him 85 on the season. So you can see where this is all heading. The 4 Cali schools, as always, competing for probably 3 NCAA slots?

As MT predicted, LSJU faces USC at 3 pm tomorrow. I remember decrying USC's Euro-laden roster on The Bootleg back in the early 2000s, describing USC as the "Univ. of Southern Croatia." Well, everyone including LSJU has many foreign born players on the roster now.

Go LSJU!

Assuming the LA schools beat the Bay Area schools today, I'm guessing the 3rd place Stanford-Cal game tomorrow will be for a spot in the NCAA tournament. That's a shame since we beat Cal twice in the regular season. Should really just have a four team tournament and skip the regular season I guess.

[Nobadeer]

Correct -  LSJU lost 11-10 to USC, and Cal lost 11-9 to Ucla.

LSJU (16-7) plays Cal (15-7) on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. As Jamesy noted above, LSJU won both of the previous two matches this season.

And as Jamesy further noted above, in the nearly 60 years of M WP, the NCAA championship has been won all but 5 times by LSJU or Cal or USC or Ucla. The other 5 were UCI (3 times), UCSB and Pepperdine.

[Nobadeer]

Correct -  LSJU lost 11-10 to USC, and Cal lost 11-9 to Ucla.

LSJU (16-7) plays Cal (15-7) on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. As Jamesy noted above, LSJU won both of the previous two matches this season.

And as Jamesy further noted above, in the nearly 60 years of M WP, the NCAA championship has been won all but 5 times by LSJU or Cal or USC or Ucla. The other 5 were UCI (3 times), UCSB and Pepperdine.

[Nobadeer]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

[Nobadeer]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

[BostonCard]

by the way, despite trailing Cal 10-6, Stanford ended on a 9-2 run to win 15-12.

https://gostanford.com/news/2025/11/23/c...california

BC

[BostonCard]

by the way, despite trailing Cal 10-6, Stanford ended on a 9-2 run to win 15-12.

https://gostanford.com/news/2025/11/23/c...california

BC

[Nobadeer]

Great tournament for LSJU super soph Botond Balogh from Budapest. 7 goals against Cal, he now has 70 for the season. And 41 assists.

https://mpsports.org/documents/2025/11/2..._stats.pdf

[Nobadeer]

Great tournament for LSJU super soph Botond Balogh from Budapest. 7 goals against Cal, he now has 70 for the season. And 41 assists.

https://mpsports.org/documents/2025/11/2..._stats.pdf

[Jamesy]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

USC essentially gets a bye to the finals to face winner of UCLA-Stanford. We have lost every game to both USC and UCLA this year, though most recent matches have been closer.

[Jamesy]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

USC essentially gets a bye to the finals to face winner of UCLA-Stanford. We have lost every game to both USC and UCLA this year, though most recent matches have been closer.

[OCcardinal]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

USC essentially gets a bye to the finals to face winner of UCLA-Stanford. We have lost every game to both USC and UCLA this year, though most recent matches have been closer.

There's close and there's CLOSE.  As BostonCard notes above, the last time we played UCLA we lost by 1 goal in triple overtime. Really could go either way (assuming we take care of business against Davis).

It's great that we made the tournament again.  There are only 2 at large bids for NCAAs and the 4 best teams in the country are almost always UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal, who all play in the same conference. So there is almost always a deserving team that is left out. This year it was Cal, which has more NCAA Men's Water Polo championships (14) than any other program.

[OCcardinal]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

USC essentially gets a bye to the finals to face winner of UCLA-Stanford. We have lost every game to both USC and UCLA this year, though most recent matches have been closer.

There's close and there's CLOSE.  As BostonCard notes above, the last time we played UCLA we lost by 1 goal in triple overtime. Really could go either way (assuming we take care of business against Davis).

It's great that we made the tournament again.  There are only 2 at large bids for NCAAs and the 4 best teams in the country are almost always UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal, who all play in the same conference. So there is almost always a deserving team that is left out. This year it was Cal, which has more NCAA Men's Water Polo championships (14) than any other program.

[Jamesy]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

USC essentially gets a bye to the finals to face winner of UCLA-Stanford. We have lost every game to both USC and UCLA this year, though most recent matches have been closer.

There's close and there's CLOSE.  As BostonCard notes above, the last time we played UCLA we lost by 1 goal in triple overtime. Really could go either way (assuming we take care of business against Davis).

It's great that we made the tournament again.  There are only 2 at large bids for NCAAs and the 4 best teams in the country are almost always UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal, who all play in the same conference. So there is almost always a deserving team that is left out. This year it was Cal, which has more NCAA Men's Water Polo championships (14) than any other program.

I'm just glad we made a big comeback vs Cal in the MPSF 3rd place game. Would have been embarrassing to host NCAAs and not be in it.

[Jamesy]

LSJU is in the tournament, as the 3 seed! Will play UC Davis in the first round. 

The tournament will be at Avery pool again. USC is the top seed and Ucla is the 2 seed. The other teams are San Jose St., Princeton, Fordham and Concordia-Irvine.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2025

USC essentially gets a bye to the finals to face winner of UCLA-Stanford. We have lost every game to both USC and UCLA this year, though most recent matches have been closer.

There's close and there's CLOSE.  As BostonCard notes above, the last time we played UCLA we lost by 1 goal in triple overtime. Really could go either way (assuming we take care of business against Davis).

It's great that we made the tournament again.  There are only 2 at large bids for NCAAs and the 4 best teams in the country are almost always UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal, who all play in the same conference. So there is almost always a deserving team that is left out. This year it was Cal, which has more NCAA Men's Water Polo championships (14) than any other program.

I'm just glad we made a big comeback vs Cal in the MPSF 3rd place game. Would have been embarrassing to host NCAAs and not be in it.

[Nobadeer]

LSJU hosts the M WP tournament, for the second straight year, starting on Friday! I think LSJU has hosted eight or nine times before, and has won the title once at Avery, in 2001 (and I was among the lucky attendees and it was awesome).

If form holds, the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon will be top seed USC vs. Fordham, and LSJU vs. Ucla. The Bruins have Ryder Dodd, the nation's best collegian, but they haven't always played to their high talent level lately. USC also has a very good roster, and LSJU is 0-7 this season vs. USC/Ucla, but all of the games have been close. I think LSJU may have led each of those 7 games at some point.

The x-factors for Stanford are the fantastic goalie West Temkin (transferred from Princeton in 2023) and the Europeans, super soph Balogh and the grad transfer from Ucla, Di Martire. They have both had outstanding seasons so far. The 2-meter, Alex Georghe, has been very good too. He is from Bucharest. So yes, many of our key players are foreign born. If memory serves, the 2001 LSJU championship team was entirely American and I can still hear the "U-S-A" cheers from echoing at Avery (USC in contrast had several foreign born players even back then).

So LSJU can certainly beat Ucla (assuming LSJU beats a rising UCDavis team and Ucla tops Princeton on Friday) and then let's see what happens vs. USC in the final. The NCAA in all its wisdom is charging $ 40 per day or $ 80 for the full tournament, the highest ticket prices ever. But no matter, Let's Go Card!!

[Nobadeer]

LSJU hosts the M WP tournament, for the second straight year, starting on Friday! I think LSJU has hosted eight or nine times before, and has won the title once at Avery, in 2001 (and I was among the lucky attendees and it was awesome).

If form holds, the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon will be top seed USC vs. Fordham, and LSJU vs. Ucla. The Bruins have Ryder Dodd, the nation's best collegian, but they haven't always played to their high talent level lately. USC also has a very good roster, and LSJU is 0-7 this season vs. USC/Ucla, but all of the games have been close. I think LSJU may have led each of those 7 games at some point.

The x-factors for Stanford are the fantastic goalie West Temkin (transferred from Princeton in 2023) and the Europeans, super soph Balogh and the grad transfer from Ucla, Di Martire. They have both had outstanding seasons so far. The 2-meter, Alex Georghe, has been very good too. He is from Bucharest. So yes, many of our key players are foreign born. If memory serves, the 2001 LSJU championship team was entirely American and I can still hear the "U-S-A" cheers from echoing at Avery (USC in contrast had several foreign born players even back then).

So LSJU can certainly beat Ucla (assuming LSJU beats a rising UCDavis team and Ucla tops Princeton on Friday) and then let's see what happens vs. USC in the final. The NCAA in all its wisdom is charging $ 40 per day or $ 80 for the full tournament, the highest ticket prices ever. But no matter, Let's Go Card!!

[OCcardinal]

As expected USC had no problem with Concordia. 16-6 win.
Fordham 13-9 over San Jose State.
UCLA 15-11 over Princeton.

[OCcardinal]

As expected USC had no problem with Concordia. 16-6 win.
Fordham 13-9 over San Jose State.
UCLA 15-11 over Princeton.

[82lsju]

not this year's team

The Hyperion Heroes series chronicles the notable teams, student-athletes, coaches and storylines that have defined Stanford's 49-year NCAA title streak. Authored by David Kiefer, the first installment shines a light on the 1976 NCAA men's water polo championship team. Little did that squad know at the time, their accomplishment was the start of something special.

https://gostanford.com/news/2025/12/4/hy...water-polo

[82lsju]

not this year's team

The Hyperion Heroes series chronicles the notable teams, student-athletes, coaches and storylines that have defined Stanford's 49-year NCAA title streak. Authored by David Kiefer, the first installment shines a light on the 1976 NCAA men's water polo championship team. Little did that squad know at the time, their accomplishment was the start of something special.

https://gostanford.com/news/2025/12/4/hy...water-polo

[Nobadeer]

Ucla beat Princeton 15-11. No surprise.

On to the last quarterfinal, LSJU v UCDavis.

[Nobadeer]

Ucla beat Princeton 15-11. No surprise.

On to the last quarterfinal, LSJU v UCDavis.

[Nobadeer]

LSJU winning 8-4 at halftime. It was 8-2 before UCD scored twice in the last minute. Balogh and Forer with 3 goals each. 

Go Card!!

[Nobadeer]

LSJU winning 8-4 at halftime. It was 8-2 before UCD scored twice in the last minute. Balogh and Forer with 3 goals each. 

Go Card!!