Early 2025 Mens Preview

College - Mens
43

The Corbin Stanley and Gabi Acosta combo was the best center duo in ncaa collegiate polo last year statistically. Both ranking in the top 5 of big west scoring and atop their team in the top 3 respectively.

WPW will be doing an ncaa preview come August.

Also @Polo1 schools ONLY announcing “signings” meaning those student athletes who are receiving scholarship money and sign for it. Everyone else is considered a recruited walk on and thus don’t “sign” any athlete financial support/scholarship paperwork and thus isn’t announced as a “signing”. It’s also possible those students haven’t signed their paperwork as of yet and weren’t part of this announcement.

4 Likes
44

He is currently training with the men’s team at CNAB. I’m curious to see how he has improved.

45

I was told by a NCAA coach Gheorghe had a shoulder issue and surgery.

48

Looks like Pepperdine is the first to post next seasons roster and schedule. Few key notes, the roster is 27, so 3 players spots saved by the judge in the HOUSE settlement. One new Hungarian, 6 American players in their class of 25. I feel that ratio is ideal for the future of US water polo. Their schedule looks very challenging only top team in my opinion missing is Fordham. Will be interesting to see what tournaments Fordham is allowed to enter. Pep is in the MPSF invite but also has individual games with all of the big 4.

49

Stanford schedule up per their Instagram

50

Stanford has Fordham on schedule.

I am going to guess and say they will play Cal and Stanford then.

51

USC out, no Fordham. maybe they will be in the MPSF invite

52

I believe Fordham also has UCLA on their schedule.

53

Fordham plays at Cal on October 23.

54

Johns Hopkins and Connecticut College have joined the MPSF for the 2025 men’s water polo season.

55

Curious how that affects the bids for D3 champs. Who is left in the CWPA? MIT?

1 Like
56

Reposting this on a better thread

I was really curious to see how Fordham was going to restock after losing all those seniors. Not sure you can replace all that experience but this looks like a solid class.

Will be interesting to see if Fordham can repeat as a top 5 team or falls back to the 8-12 range. They certainly didn’t hold back on the schedule w 3 of 4 big 4

57

I recall how some East Coast fans last year
were deep into a conspiracy theory that Big 4 were afraid/ unwilling to schedule Fordham :slight_smile:

1 Like
58

Good question. For the first time I can remember, Fordham has a better incoming class (at least on paper) than Stanford. I think UCLA will have the best team and the best player. USC will be very good, especially if the freshman Serbian center is as good as some people think. Fordham, Cal, and Stanford will battle it out for the No. 3 to 5 spots. I can see Fordham finishing 3rd if the goalie from Malta is very good. I’d rank LBSU, Princeton, U.C. Irvine, and Pepperdine in the next group.

1 Like
60

After seeing some of the recruiting classes I’d upgrade Cal’s prospects this year. Truly incredible recruiting class for Kirk plus the addition of Dom Brown gives them a strong duo at center. USC had a great class and legitimately can win the title next year. Stanford is a slight downgrade without the Romanian center but is still going to be very good. I’d give an upgrade to Fordham based on their incoming class with the caveat that the performance of the goalie will be important. Definite upgrade to Long Beach with their CBU transfers (big downgrade for CBU as a result). Slight upgrade for UOP based on their incoming class. I also think Pepperdine is going to be very good. San Jose State will be a tough out with the best goalie in college water polo.

Can’t wait to see UCLA vs Fordham on the east coast early in the season. 8:00am game in doors could be challenging for UCLA

61

Does Air Force’s hosting of the WCC Tournament create any weird outcomes for that conference.

Playing a one-off game out there isn’t too big of a deal, but playing at 7200 ft for a weekend might change things for some of those teams.

62

Good for Air Force as altitude won’t impact them. But water polo athletes are in elite cardiovascular shape so I don’t think it would impact them as much as say an NBA team.

63

Here are some of my thoughts on the consensus top 8 programs.

USC: After winning 8 out of 14 NCAA tournaments until 2018, Pinta has yet to win an NCAA tournament as the head coach. I believe that if he fails to win this year, questions need to be asked. Pinta has both the No.1 transfer portal pickup (Mihailo Vukazic) and No.1 incoming freshman (Strahinja Krstic), and also has Gavin Conant and Efe Naipoglu coming in as part of the freshman class. Combine that with the likes of Lopez-Duart, Herzer, Grgurevic, Brankovic, Bettino, Jack Martin, and one can argue that USC is the favorite over UCLA this upcoming year.

UCLA: While the incomers are not at the level of USC’s, UCLA has the best returners in the NCAA, highlighted by the Dodds, Carsalade, Marcell Szécsi, and the Leichtys. UCLA will be the preseason No.1, and looking at just talent, USC and UCLA are in their own tier to start the season.

Cal: Despite the loss of Casabella and other strong players from the Class of 2025, Cal answered their biggest question mark at the goalie position and has a strong incoming class while returning Ponferrada and co. I don’t expect Cal to compete for a national championship come December, but they will be more competitive than they were in 2025.

Stanford: I expect this to be a retooling year for Stanford. The incoming class is pretty average for Big Four standards. With talks of James Rozolis Hill sitting out and likely transferring to Stanford for 2026, alongside a few strong Class of 2030 commitments, I expect Stanford to use this as a development year before seriously competing for the title in 2026.

Fordham: Like its East Coast counterpart, Fordham lost a lot of talent but returns their freshman duo of Toth and Provenziani. Fordham and Stanford recently had a scrimmage at Stanford, with Stanford winning. Fordham will be asking a lot from its incoming players. If they deliver, expect Fordham to be in the top five for a majority of the season, and don’t be surprised if they beat Stanford in Santa Clara in late October.

Princeton: Coach Dusty Litvak always gets the most out of his group, and I expect that to be the case again this year. Similarly to Fordham, Princeton lost a talented group that included Roko Pozaric and Vladan Mitrovic. However, they return Kovacs in goal and two players who competed in the U20 worlds (Gavin Appledorn and Adam Peocz), and have Otto Stothart, who was the best center in high school water polo last year.

LBSU: Going into the offseason, the question was whether Gabi Acosta and Corbin Stanley would stay at LBSU for their sophomore seasons after stellar freshman seasons. Not only did Arroyo keep both, but he brought in Corbin’s brother and Whitestone (goalie), both from CBU. LBSU has the potential to be a final-four team this year.

UCI: I know some people are very high on UCI this year. They return key contributors Cole Francisco, Luke Krstic, and Johann Thrall. They have a decent incoming class, and if they can get them to contribute early, UCI will be able to compete with LBSU for the Big West title next year.

I didn’t mention Pepperdine and UCSD, but I expect them to round out the top 10.

4 Likes
65

I saw Krstic in Croatia at the U20s and while he is an exceptional center he is not a replacement for Max Miller year one IMHO, and Vukazic is a hell of a shooter but once again does he do as well as Krantz did? I think SC is going to be very good this year but to argue they are a favorite over UCLA is a stretch until some games are played IMHO. I think Cal has the potential to be the surprise this year. Center play and goal keeping will be the key and UCLA has a couple good ones, as does SC, Stanford and others have good center play. SC has a great goal keeper, Tauscher seems to be improving (played well at WUGS). Time will tell.

66

I agree that Krstic will take some time to adjust to the American game and develop, but questioning if Vukazic will excel is wrong. There’s a reason he was a Cutino award finalist. We’re talking about a guy that can score from 7-8 meters out and is a tough matchup for just about any center in the entire country. I didn’t say that they’re the favorite over UCLA, but there’s definitely a case that they have the better roster. Pinta just needs to find a way to make the group mesh.