2016 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
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| Dates | December 3–4, 2016 |
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The 2016 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship will be the 48th annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. Tournament matches will be played at the Spieker Aquatics Complex at the University of California in Berkley, California from December 3–4, 2016. The five conferences receiving automatic qualification were: the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA).
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. Under the new format, seven teams are invited to contest this single-elimination tournament. The championship will be held December 3 and 4, hosted by California.
Play-in Games
- Nov. 26 – Harvard (25-6) 13, Bucknell (23-5) 12 (OT), at Harvard University
- Dec. 1, 4:30 PM – Harvard (26-6) 16, UC Davis (23-5) 15, at Spieker Aquatics Complex, Berkeley
- Dec. 1, 6:30 PM – California (20-4) 16, Pomona-Pitzer (21-8) 6, at Spieker Aquatics Complex, Berkeley
Bracket
| Semi-Finals | Final | |||||
| 3 December — 6:00 PM | ||||||
| USC | 19 | |||||
| 4 December — 3:00 PM | ||||||
| Harvard | 4 | |||||
| California | 0 | |||||
| 3 December — 8:12 PM | ||||||
| USC | 0 | |||||
| UCLA | 8 | |||||
| California | 9 | |||||
