2024 NCAA Water Polo Championships
- Sunday, December 8, 2024
- Avery Aquatic Center – Stanford, Calif.
- One Game Final
- NCAA Championship Bracket
- Championship Highlights
The top-ranked UCLA Bruins men’s water polo team bested the USC Trojans to win the 2024 National Championship title on Sunday, pulling ahead late in the game to emerge victorious in an 11-8 final.
The win marked the 13th men’s NCAA water polo title in program history for UCLA and the 124th all-time for the school across all sports. The Bruins finished the season with a standout 26-2 record, including going 4-1 against the Trojans.
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UCLA had seven different goal scorers in the game, with freshman Ryder Dodd, redshirt junior Chase Dodd and graduate seniors Nico Tierney and Jack Larsen all hitting the board twice.
Also scoring was Frederico Juca Carsalade, Aaron Voggenthaler and Peter Castillo, while redshirt freshman Nate Tauscher made 10 saves in just his third start as a collegiate goalkeeper.
The game was 2-2 after the first quarter, and the two teams went to halftime deadlocked at 4-4, with R. Dodd scoring the 101st goal of his freshman season in the second to tie the all-time MPSF single-season goals record.
The Bruins pulled ahead by one in the third, with Dodd scoring his record-breaking 102nd goal to give them a 7-6 lead, and then they outscored the Trojans 4-2 in the fourth to seal the 11-8 victory.
Robert López Duart and Andrej Grgurevic scored twice for USC, while Max Miller, Tom McGuire and Luka Brnetic and Jack Martin also got on the board for the Trojans.
CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS:
The win also marked the fifth NCAA title for Adam Wright as UCLA head coach, with all five of his title wins coming against USC. It’s Wright’s ninth title overall after winning twice as a player (1999, 2000), once as head coach of the women’s program (2024) and once as an assistant coach on the women’s team (2009).
UCLA last won the title in 2020 (championship held in March 2021), with Cal winning the last three titles before the Bruins’ triumph this year. USC lost to Cal in back-to-back finals in 2021 and 2022 before UCLA fell 13-11 to Cal in the 2023 final.
RECENT MEN’S NCAA WATER POLO CHAMPIONS
- 2024 – UCLA
- 2023 – Cal
- 2022 – Cal
- 2021 – Cal
- 2020 – UCLA
- 2019 – Stanford
- 2018 – USC
- 2017 – UCLA
- 2016 – Cal
- 2015 – UCL
After placing fourth at the MPSF Championships in November, Cal was not selected to compete in the NCAA tournament.
USC, which won six straight titles between 2008 and 2013, has now lost in four of the last five NCAA title games, with their last championship coming back in 2018.
BOX SCORE
No. 2 USC vs. No. 1 UCLA (2024 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship – Stanford, Calif. – Game 28)
| SCOREBOARD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
| No. 2 USC | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| No. 1 UCLA | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
6×5 – UCLA – 4/12 – USC – 3/8
Penalties – UCLA – 1/1 – USC – 0/0
USC Goals: Robert Lopez Duart 2, Andrej Grgurevic 2, Max Miller 1, Luka Brnetic 1, Tom McGuire 1, Jack Martin 1
USC Saves: Bernardo Herzer 9
UCLA Goals: Jack Larsen 2, Chase Dodd 2, Ryder Dodd 2, Nico Tierney 2, Frederico Jucá Carsalade 1, Aaron Voggenthaler 1, Peter Castillo 1
UCLA Saves: Nate Tauscher 10
Go Bruins!!