1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
Dates December 1979
Teams 8
Champions UC Santa Barbara (1st title)
Runners-up UCLA (6th title game)
Third place Stanford
Fourth place California
Matches played 12
Goals scored 246 (20.5 per match)
Attendance 2,542 (212 per match)
Top goal scorer(s) Scott Schulte, Bucknell (11)
Best player Greg Boyer, UCSB

The 1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship was the 11th annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's college water polo. Tournament matches were played at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, California during December 1979.[1]

UC Santa Barbara defeated UCLA in the final, 11–3, to win their first national title.

Greg Boyer from UC Santa Barbara was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. An All-Tournament Team, consisting of seven players, was also named. For the third consecutive year, the tournament's leading scorer was Scott Schulte from Bucknell (11 goals).

Qualification

Since there has only ever been one single national championship for water polo, all NCAA men's water polo programs (whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of 8 teams were invited to contest this championship.

Team Appearance Previous
Air Force 3rd 1978
Brown 2nd 1977
Bucknell 3rd 1978
California 7th 1978
Loyola–Chicago 5th 1978
Stanford 7th 1978
UCLA 9th 1976
UC Santa Barbara 7th 1976

Bracket

  Fifth place Consolation semifinals First round Championship semifinals Championship
                                               
    California 19  
    Air Force 7  
  Air Force 9       California 9  
  Bucknell 11       UCLA 10  
  UCLA 17
    Bucknell 7  
  Bucknell 9       UCLA 3
  Loyola–Chicago 5       UC Santa Barbara 11
    UC Santa Barbara 21  
      Loyola–Chicago 4  
Loyola–Chicago (3OT) 11       UC Santa Barbara 10
  Seventh place     Brown 10       Stanford 9     Third place
  Air Force 10   Stanford 13   California 10
  Brown 15     Brown 5     Stanford 11

All-tournament team

See also

References

  1. "Men's Water Polo Championship Results". NCAA. NCAA.org. Retrieved April 10, 2015.