CWPA Releases 2009 Men's Division III Eastern Schedule

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) has released the 2009 Men's Division III Eastern Championship schedule. Set for October 24-25 at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., the event features Johns Hopkins University, W&J, Connecticut College and Penn State Behrend College in a face-off to decide the best Divisiion III competing program on the East Coast.

Competition begins on Saturday, October 24 as the four squads will play a round-robin format to decide which teams advance to the championship and third place games set for Sunday, October 25. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which advanced to the title game last year at Johns Hopkins University, elected not to compete in the 2009 tournament. 

In the history of the tournament, Johns Hopkins has won 11 of the 18 previous championships, including seven of the past 10 dating back to 1999.  Only three teams have won the Division III Eastern title as MIT (5 - 1991, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007) and Washington & Lee University (2 - 1992, 1993) join Hopkins (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008), while only four have advanced to the title game as Washington & Jefferson made the finale in 2007.