August 22, 2011

Tigers Debut At No. 5 In CWPA Preseason Poll

Stockton, Calif. - The Pacific men's water polo team will begin the 2011 season with the program's highest preseason ranking in five years after bowing at No. 5 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Preseason Poll released Wednesday, August 17.

"We're very excited to open the season with Pacific's highest preseason ranking in recent memory," head coach James Graham said. "We look forward to the opportunity of trying to move up as the season progresses."

The Tigers are coming off of a banner year that saw the program ascend to as high as No. 4 nationally, the highest ranking since 1995. The Orange and Black finished the year at 17-11, including a 4-4 mark in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play and a 13-5 victory over Pepperdine in the seventh-place game at the MPSF Tournament. Pacific returns 15 letter winners, including nine seniors and three All-Americans.

Pacific opens the season versus No. 14 Santa Clara at the Golden Bear Invitational in Berkeley, Calif., on September 3. The Tigers' first home match is September 17 at the NorCal Tournament.

Rank   Team 2010 Final Poll   Points
1 USC 1 99
2 California 2 95
3 UCLA 4 90
4 Stanford 3 86
5 Pacific 8 76
6 UC Irvine 5 70
7 UC Santa Barbara 6 69
8 Loyola Marymount   7 64
9 Pepperdine 9 63
10 Long Beach State 11 60
11 St. Francis (N.Y.) 10 50
12 UC San Diego 14 44
13 UC Davis 12 43
14 Santa Clara 13 34
15 Navy 15 30
16 Princeton 16 23
17 Cal Baptist 17 20
18 Air Force 20 14
19 Bucknell 18 9
20 Concordia (Calif.) 19 8
RV Brown RV 7
RV Redlands NR 1
RV Pomona-Pitzer NR 1
RV Johns Hopkins NR 1