Bronx, N.Y. – The 2026 Fordham water polo squad, ranked fifth in the nation, continues its 2026 season this weekend by hosting a pair of nationally ranked teams, ninth-ranked Pepperdine on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and #11 San Jose State on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Both matches will be in the Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center.
 
All games will be streamed on the Fordham Athletics YouTube channel.
 
The Rams are coming off a 4-0 start to the season, sweeping all four matches at the Bruno Classic at Brown University on August 29 and 30. Pepperdine enters the match with a 4-4 record and is coming off a 17-14 loss at #2 USC on Sept. 6, while San Jose State entered the Princeton Invitational this weekend with a 1-1 mark.
 
SERIES HISTORIES

• Fordham and Pepperdine have met twice in the past with the Waves taking both matches. Both matches occurred in 2023, the first a 16-10 Pepperdine win at the Bruno Classic, and the second a 15-14 Waves victory at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament.
• It will be the sixth meeting between the Rams and the Spartans with Fordham holding a 4-1 series lead. The two teams met twice last year with the Rams winning 10-9 at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament and again by a 13-9 score in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship 

NEWS & NOTES

• The Rams are led by head coach Brian Bacharach, who has built the Rams into a national championship contender, collecting a 163-36 record since 2019, winning five MAWPC Championships, and making the national championship semifinals the last two years.
• Fordham returns its All-American duo of Andras Toth and Luca Provenziani for 2026.The junior duo has made an impact from day one at Rose Hill, as both have earned First Team All-American honors and set multiple single season records already.  Toth scored a school record 134 goals in 2025 and was First Team All-American and the MAWPC Most Valuable Player, while Provenziani set the single season mark for assists with 103 in 2025 and was a Second Team All-American after earning First Team honors as a freshman.
• The Rams have set a new bar becoming a "United Nations" team as the team has representatives from 10 countries – Hungary, Serbia, Malta, Germany, South Africa, Italy, Croatia, Ukraine, Canada, and the United States.
• Fordham had six players represent their country at the 2026 U20 European Championship in mid-August with Karlo Dragosevic capturing gold with Croatia and Diego Tresa and Alessandro Salipante taking bronze with Italy.  Viktor Savic and Vuk Kojic (Serbia) and Andras Toth (Hungary) were the other three Rams competing.
• In addition to a wealth of new, young talent, the Rams also added graduate transfer Laszlo Strasser from Wagner College, where he was a First Team All-MAWPC performer and ACWPC Honorable Mention All-American.

 
WHO'S NEXT

• After this weekend, the Rams return to action at the Bucknell Invitational next Saturday. Fordham will face Bucknell, Mt. St. Mary's, and Mercyhurst in MAWPC action in Lewisburg, N.Y.