Bridgeport, Pa. — (September 25, 2019) - The Men's Varsity Water Polo National Top 20 and Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Top Five Polls were released on Wednesday for week three of the 2019 water polo season.
Among the newcomers to the polls is the Fordham Rams, who for the first time since 2017, cracked the National Top 20 poll at #16, while also taking over the #1 spot in the MAWPC Top Five poll. Fordham earned 20 votes in this week's national poll, after receiving votes in last week's poll.
The bump in the polls comes a few days after the Rams (9-2, 3-0 MAWPC) pulled off a 4-0 week at the Bison Invitational, which included an upset win over then-#13 Bucknell, the team's first win over the Bison since 2014. The 9-2 start is Fordham's best through 11 games since 1981, which so far includes three wins over teams that were either nationally ranked at the time or receiving votes for the top 20.
Fordham has been led this season by the scoring duo of
Jake Miller-Tolt and
Dimitris Koukias, who rank first and second in points, as well as the goalkeeping of
Bailey O'Mara. All three have won weekly awards from the MAWPC this season. Miller-Tolt is the team leader in goals (41), assists (26), and points (74), while Koukias is second in goals (35) and points (39), while being the team leader in exclusion (24) and penalties drawn (4). O'Mara is averaging 10 saves a contest to go with 16 steals, three assists, and four penalty blocks.
The Rams will have an immediate challenge to stay in the National Top 20, as Fordham hosts a pair of league matches on Saturday, September 28
th against #19 George Washington at 10:00 AM, followed by a 4:30 PM match against Johns Hopkins.
| 2019 Men's Varsity Top 20 (Week 3/September 25) |
| Rank |
Team |
Points |
| 1 |
University of California-Santa Barbara |
99 |
| 2 |
University of California-Los Angeles |
94 |
| 3 |
Stanford University |
91 |
| 4 |
University of the Pacific |
84 |
| 5 |
University of Southern California |
82 |
| 6 |
Pepperdine University |
73 |
| 7 |
University of California |
71 |
| 8 |
Long Beach State University |
65 |
| 9 |
University of California-Davis |
62 |
| 10 |
University of California-Irvine |
53 |
| 11 |
University of California-San Diego |
51 |
| 12 |
Harvard University |
46 |
| 13 |
Loyola Marymount University |
32 |
| 14 |
Princeton University |
30 |
| 15 |
St. Francis College Brooklyn |
25 |
| 16 |
Fordham University |
20 |
| 17 (T) |
California Baptist University |
19 |
| 17 (T) |
Bucknell University |
19 |
| 19 |
George Washington University |
16 |
| 20 |
San Jose State University |
12 |
| RV |
United States Air Force Academy |
4 |
| RV |
Brown University |
3 |
| RV |
University of Redlands |
2 |
| RV |
United States Naval Academy |
2 |
| RV |
Santa Clara University |
1 |
| RV |
Pomona-Pitzer Colleges |
1 |
