Just last weekend, Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center—just minutes away from Paly’s home pool—hosted the annual Men’s NCAA Water Polo championship tournament where the top eight teams battled it out for the national title.
The Avery Aquatic Center has been home to this tournament for the past two years due to its world-class facilities, excellent infrastructure and previous tradition of success. Not to mention, it’s home to one of the top “powerhouse” Men’s and Women’s Water Polo programs in the country.
This years championship tournament featured Palo Alto’s own Stanford Cardinals (#3) along with seven other fierce competitors: University of Southern California (#1), University of California at Los Angeles (#2), Fordham University (#4), Concordia University Irvine, San Jose State University, Princeton University, and University of California at Davis.
These eight teams brought massive fan turnout from all over the country, including some of Palys very own students. Felix Ryans, a Senior and Varsity boys Water Polo captain, has been coming down to Avery to watch and compete in many highly competitive Water Polo games for many years.
“I like going to the games at Stanford because as a fan and player of the sport, in a country that has very high level Water Polo I can watch, going down to Stanford provides me with really great experience especially for the convenience regarding the level of play, ” Ryans said. “Being able to watch these games is a great way to learn new techniques and gain experience.”
But not only does Ryans come down to watch and learn from these athletes’ game performance, but he gets to play in these state-of-the-art facilities himself, during summer Junior Olympic tournaments.
“Being able to play in Avery during the summer is also a great experience because it’s one of the best Water Polo facilities in the world, and the crowds that come out to watch are always super awesome and contribute to the completely unique experience that not a lot of other sports have,” Ryans said. “Also being able to play games where the best-of-the-best have played is awesome. I kinda draw an equivalent to playing football in Levi’s Stadium, or something similar.”
To start off the action on Friday (12/5), the first matchup between #1 USC and CUI resulted in a beatdown 16-6 with USC as the victor. Next up was #4 Fordham taking down SJSU 13-9 and #2 UCLA tying up some loose ends beating Princeton 15-11 in a heated fourth quarter. And of course, to end day one, #3 Stanford proving their dominance by sending Davis home with a 15-9 final.
Day two (12/6) was set up for two extremely competitive games with the #1 USC trojans taking on the #4 Fordham Rams for the second year in a row, and the #2 UCLA Bruins set to battle the #3 Stanford Cardinals. 2024’s USC v. Fordham game set the stakes high with a nail-bitting 18-16 win for the Trojans in overtime. This year, however, the Rams just weren’t able to handle the heat—loosing 16-7, as USC fought on and into the championship. In the afternoon, Stanford battled it out until the very last seconds when UCLA brought it home with a 9-7 win.
Day three (12/7) showcased #1 USC and #2 UCLA—the crosstown rivalry, but in NorCal—as the reigning national champions, UCLA, took on the feisty and top-ranked trojans. The game ended with a game-winning, buzzer-beater, man-up goal from Frederico Jucá Carsalade to name the Bruins not only national champions, but back-to-back champions and secure an 11-10 win.
