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What 2 Watch 4
- The Big West is set to embark on its first season of men's water polo action in the fall of 2023, after a 22-year hiatus, bringing The Big West's tally to 19 conference-sponsored sports in the 2023-24 season, the league already enjoys a storied past in the pool in both the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) and Big West eras.
- Two Big West programs celebrate championships while competing in the conference when men's water polo was previously sponsored, with UC Santa Barbara claiming the school's first-ever Division I championship in 1979 in the sport of men's water polo. UC Irvine took home national titles in 1982 and '89, as the three contributed part of The Big West's 21 total NCAA team championships.
- The Big West will spread across two sites this week between the Titan Invitational hosted by (RV) Cal State Fullerton and the MPSF Invitational which will be divided between the Uytengsu Aquatics Center and Spieker Aquatics Center on the campuses of No. 3 USC and No. 2 UCLA
- On Friday, the Titans will commence their homestand in double header fashion taking on Austin College and (RV) Air Force. No. 11 Long Beach State and No. 12 UC Irvine will collide while T-No. 9 UC San Diego stands off against No. 4 Pepperdine with both matchups at 3 p.m. Day one of the MPSF Invitational concludes with No. 8 UC Davis squaring off against T-No. 19 Santa Clara, who the Aggies downed 18-10 in their last meeting on Sept. 16th. Following Friday's results, weekend matchups during the MPSF Invitational will be TBA. No. 13 UC Santa Barbara will battle with T-No. 9 Santa Clara on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. before taking on LMU at 4:30 p.m.
Poll Position
- For consecutive weeks, all six institutions represent The Big West in the latest CWPA national rankings. UC Davis continues as the highest ranked Big West insititution, but the team fell to eight in this weeks installment. UC San Diego is knotted at nine with San Jose State after its conference victory over Long Beach State. The Beach trail just two slots behind the Tritons at No. 11 overall, while UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara trail at No. 12 and No. 13, respectivley.
Big West, Big Nationally Ranked Wins
- No. 8 UC Davis downed No. 20 Santa Clara 18-10 on Saturday afternoon. Senior utility Aleix Aznar Beltran highlighted the Aggies with a hat trick and three assists in the victory. Aznar Beltran places fourth in the league with 12 assists, and second in the conference with five field blocks.
- Cal State Fullerton earned its first triumph over a nationally ranked opponent with a 15-10 upset over No. 20 Air Force. Junior utility Julian Nichols paced all scorers with five total points (4 goals, 1 assist) in the historic victory. The Titans secured a perfect 4-0 showing last week at the Inland Empire Classic.
- No. 8 Long Beach State took down No. 4 Stanford during opening weekend at the Triton Invitational. Freshman attacker Robert Lopez Duart had a standout performance as he scored seven goals in the game including three in the first quarter and three in the fourth quarter. Lopez Duart collected the first Player of the Week honor for the impressive outing against a nationally ranked opponent. The Barcelona, Spain product leads The Big West with 20 total goals.
Titans Earn First Program Win
- The inaugural Cal State Fullerton men's water polo program recorded its first win on Sept. 3 with a, 10-8, victory over Pomona-Pitzer in La Jollia, Calif during the Triton Invitational. The pair of junior drivers Nick D'Angelo, and Togan Ozbek paced the team with three goals apiece as the Titans emerged victorious for the first time in program history.
Preseason Prognostics
- UC Davis has been appointed as the top team in The Big West heading into the 2023 season, as voted on by the league's seven head coaches. The Aggies (19-4, 8-0 WWPA) earned 21 points and two first-place votes in the top spot of the preseason poll after the team swept conference play a year ago.
Coaches in the league also voted on a seven-person preseason team as UC Davis saw three student-athletes make the squad redshirt junior attack Logan Anderson, junior utility Aleix Aznar Beltran, and redshirt junior goalkeeper Aaron Wilson.
Anderson placed second on the team with 51 points (32 points, 19 assists) while Aznar Beltran scored 28 goals and notched 19 assists. Wilson had a career-year starting 25 matches and corralled 203 saves for the WWPA champions. A year ago, the Aggies punched their ticket to the NCAA Championship after edging UC San Diego in the WWPA conference title game, 13-12.
Long Beach State (21-9, 4-1 WWPA) and UC Santa Barbara (14-13, 3-2 WWPA) were knotted in the second-place slot with 19 points apiece. The Beach received a pair of first-place votes while the Gauchos tallied a one first-place vote.
UC Davis and Long Beach State both landed three student-athletes on the preseason team, qualifying for the most among the six schools in The Big West.
Dash McFarland dominated for UC Santa Barabara last season behind a 36-goal performance, earning All-GCC Second Team accolades for the performance.
The Beach return two top five goal scorers from a year ago with Evan Cain who contributed 41 goals during the attacker's sophomore campaign while fellow sophomore Bruno Chiappini followed suit with 37 tallies. Senior utility Guillermo Ocasio will look to make an immediate impact after transferring from UCLA where the senior finished last season with nine scores.
UC Irvine (16-13, 2-3 WWPA) is predicted fourth in the poll, accumulating 15 points and a lone first-place vote. Reigning GCC Newcomer of the Year Ethan Shipman earned preseason recognition on The Big West team after the junior attack recorded 53 scores and 29 assists a year ago.
UC San Diego (14-13, 6-2 WWPA) slides in the fifth-place spot on the preseason poll with 11 points and celebrates Rhys Bugelli as its representative on the preseason team. The junior utility player compiled 47 goals and assisted on 14 more en route to earning All-WWPA Second Team accolades.
First-year program Cal State Fullerton (5 points) rounds out the rankings on the coaches' poll. The Titans enter the year under the leadership of head coach Kyle Witt who carries 13 years of experience from LMU and is also in charge of the Titan's women's water polo team.
The first date of Big West men's water polo competition begins on Saturday, Sept. 2 in La Jolla, Calif. during the Triton Invitational on the campus of UC San Diego. Canyonview Aquatic Center will also serve as the host-site for the inaugural Big West men's water polo Championship from Nov. 17-19.
Select regular-season contests are slated for telecast on the ESPN family of networks. Please check ESPN listings for upcoming games/info.
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Canyonview Aquatic Center | La Jolla, Calif.
The 2023 Big West Men's Water Polo Championship will see all six teams converge on Canyonview Aquatics Center on the campus of UC San Diego, Nov. 17-19, with an eye to the championship trophy.
The quarterfinals are set to be played on Friday, Nov. 17, with advancing teams back in the pool for semifinal competition Saturday. The final two teams will square off on Sunday, Nov. 19 to battle for league superiority.
With Cal State Fullerton's addition of a men's water polo program, The Big West met the criteria to create a men's water polo conference with its six participating institutions and will now have the ability to have its own championship. Previously, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara endorsed men's water polo as a varsity sport.
The five previously mentioned schools finished the 2022 season ranked inside the Top 20 of the College Water Polo Association (CWPA).
6. UC Davis (75 points)
8. Long Beach State (68 points)
9. UC Santa Barbara(60 points)
10. UC San Diego (56 points)
11. UC Irvine (48 points)
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