So, after the UCLA men’s water polo team completed the football-water polo weekend sweep by beating Southern Cal, 7-4, in the Third Place Game of the MPSF Men’s Water Polo Tournament, Stanford defeated UC Berkeley, 12-10 in the Championship Game to earn the MPSF’s automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament.
Five other conference champions also earned automatic bids. Those schools are 4th seed UC San Diego, Long Beach State, Princeton, Pomona-Pitzer and George Washington.
That left UCLA, Southern Cal and UC Berkeley hoping for one of the two at-large bids. The NCAA Men’s Water Polo Committee gave Southern Cal the number two seed, despite two home losses this past weekend while selecting UCLA for the three seed with the other at-large bid.