SAN BRUNO, Calif. - The 2025 West Coast Conference Men's Water Polo Tournament Champion San José State will face No. 4 Fordham in the opening round of the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, the NCAA announced on Monday.
The No. 5-ranked Spartans and No. 4-ranked Rams will face off in game 2 on Friday, Dec. 5 at 2:00 p.m. at Avery Aquatic Center at Stanford. Fordham (25-3) is coming off a victory in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Championship on Sunday, where they took down George Washington, 16-9 to earn the conference's automatic qualifier. The opening-round matchup will be livestreamed on NCAA.com. The NCAA Championship will run Dec. 5-7 at Stanford with the championship game taking place Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3:00 p.m. on ESPNU. San José State and Fordham are joined by automatic qualifiers Concordia University-Irvine, Princeton and UC Davis with UCLA and Stanford receiving the at-large selections to the eight-team NCAA Championship field.
This will be a rematch of the October 26 battle that saw Fordham and San José State in a tight back-and-forth affair. The Rams defeated the Spartans, 10-9 at the Julian Fraser memorial Tournament at San José State.
The winner of Friday's match between San José State and Fordham will advance to the NCAA semifinals on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 2:00 p.m. PT against either USC or Concordia University-Irvine.
The Spartans (14-7) earned one of the six automatic bids to the NCAA Championship after defeating Air Force, No. 10 Pepperdine and No. 15 California Baptist over three days en route to securing the West Coast Conference Men's Water Polo crown this past Sunday at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. The Spartans collected three West Coast Conference All-Tournament Team selections in Samu Biros, Mateja Bosic and Brendon Gyapjas, with Gyapjas also garnering West Coast Conference Men's Water Polo Tournament Most Outstanding Player.
This will be San José State's sixth time competing in the NCAA Championship and second since joining the West Coast Conference as an affiliate member for men's water polo in 2023. Prior to joining the conference, the Spartans' last appearance was in 1973. San José State discontinued the men's water polo program in 1981 and reinstated it in 2015. The 2023 appearance saw the Spartans fall to No. 3 USC in the opening round, 18-10.