Aug. 16, 2010

2010 MPSF Men's Water Polo Preseason Coaches' Poll

California received four of nine first-place votes and 58 total points in taking the No. 1 spot in the 2010 MPSF Men's Water Polo Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Bears are coming off a 22-6 season, culminating in a second-place finish at the conference tournament last November. Four returning All-Americans highlight their roster in seniors Brian Dudley and Zach White, along with juniors Ivan Rackov and Cory Nasoff. 2009 MPSF Tournament Champion UCLA collected 55 points and a pair of top votes for second-place in the poll, led by a group of veterans this year that include Ben Hohl and Cullen Hennessey. Stanford also earned two first-place votes and was just one point behind the Bruins with 54, returning two-time First Team All-American Sage Wright. Defending back-to-back national champion USC picked up one first-place vote with 44 points. All-Americans Joel Dennerley (GK) and Peter Kurzeka return from last year's unbeaten regular conference season. UC Irvine scored 32 points in finishing in the middle of the poll, as a pair of All-Americans and top-10 MPSF scorers return in Brandon Johnson and Tom Kruip. Only one point behind the Anteaters was UC Santa Barbara, who welcomes back their top-three scorers including the '09 conference leader Milos Golic. Long Beach State, Pacific, and Pepperdine rounded out this year's preseason coaches' poll. Key returnees from that trio include '09 MPSF Newcomer of the Year Goran Tomasevic (Pacific), Andrew Milcovich (Pepperdine), and Alexsandr Petrovic (LBSU). The official 2010 season begins the weekend of September 4, with several teams opening at the UC Irvine Invitational. The top-eight regular season conference finishers advance to the MPSF Tournament at Stanford, November 26-28. The winner of that weekend automatically moves on to the NCAA Tournament at California, December 4-5.

1 California
2 UCLA
3 Stanford
4 USC
5 UC Irvine
6 UC Santa Barbara
7 Long Beach State
8 Pacific
9 Pepperdine