Harvard & Bucknell to Host 2009 Men's Varsity Northern & Southern Championship Tournaments

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The qualifiers for the 2009 Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Championship set for November 20-22 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be decided in Boston, Mass. and Lewisburg, Pa. as Harvard University and Bucknell University will serve as hosts of the 2009 Northern & Southern Championships on November 7-8.

In the Northern Division, Brown University, Connecticut College, Fordham University, Harvard, Iona College, MIT and Queens College will battle for the top four spots in the divsion and automatic berths to the Eastern Championship.

Last year at the 2008 Northern Division Championship hosted by MIT, St. Francis College (N.Y.), which is serving a one-year sabbatical from the league, captured the division title, while Brown, MIT, Iona, Fordham, Harvard, Queens and Connecticut followed in second thorugh eighth, respectively.

 Three-time defending league champion the United States Naval Academy will seek to continue its recent string of success as the Midshipmen will join George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, Gannon University, Mercyhurst College, Pennsylvania State University Erie-The Behrend College, Salem International University and Washington & Jefferson College in traveling to Bucknell.

At the 2008 Championship hosted by Princeton University, the host Tigers knocked off Navy to win the division title with Johns Hopkins, Bucknell, George Washington, Mercyhurst, Gannon, Washington & Jefferson, Salem International and Penn State following in third through eighth, respectively.

The top four teams from both the Northern and Southern Championships will advance to square-off for the league championship and an automatic berth to the 2009 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship (December 4-6 at Princeton University) at MIT on November 20-22.