Stanford Jumps to No. 1 in September 23 National Men's Varsity Poll

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The nation has a new top team as Stanford University climbed one place to become a unanimous No. 1 selection in the September 23 National Men's Varsity Top 20 Poll. The Cardinal replaces USC which slipped to No. 3, one spot behind UCLA which knocked off the Trojans last week. Johns Hopkins University and the United States Naval Academy held onto their positions at the top of the Division III and CWPA Polls.

Voted on by a panel of coaches and administrators from around the country during each week of the season and based on the cumulative results of each team, the Varsity Top 20, Division III Top 10 and Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 10 polls are released each Wednesday during the season until the Wednesday following the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship.

Men's Top 20 Varsity Poll

Stanford University climbs one place this week to take over the No. 1 ranking as the Cardinal handled University of California-Davis (16-3 W), Pepperdine University (15-9 W), University of California (8-7 W) and University of California-Los Angeles (6-5 W) at the NorCal Tournament last week.

Stanford, which was ranked No. 2 behind former unanimous No. 1 team in the country University of Southern California, earned 100 points to be also become a unanimous No. 1 selection.

UCLA, which handled Concordia University (12-5 W), Loyola Marymount University (7-3 W) and USC (5-4 W) last week at NorCals, rose two places to No. 2, while USC and California dropped back to No. 3 and 4, respectively.

The fifth and sixth positions in the poll remain unchanged with Loyola Marymount and University of California-Santa Barbara holding firm from the September 26 poll, while University of California-Irvine moved past Pepperdine to take over the No. 7 position.

Long Beach State University continues to hold on at No. 9 and Santa Clara University moved up two places to round out the Top 10.

The United States Naval Academy, which defeated Princeton University 13-7 to win the 2009 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship over the weekend, improved two places to No. 11, while Concordia dropped out of the Top 10 and back to 12th this week.

University of California-San Diego rocketed four places to No. 13, the United States Air Force Academy remains grounded at No. 14, UC-Davis rose to No. 15 and University of the Pacific fell back to No. 16 with Princeton, St. Francis College (NY), California Baptist University and Johns Hopkins University rounding out the Top 20.

Men's Division III Top 10 Varsity Poll

Johns Hopkins University remains No. 1 in the Division III Top 10 poll as the Blue Jays received 100 points to outdistance University of Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges for another week.

The top three positions in the poll remain unchanged from the September 16 balloting as Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer held on at No. 2 and 3, respectively, while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges and California Lutheran University broke into the Top Five at fourth and fifth.

Whittier College and Chapman University fell back to No. 6 and 7 after ranking fourth and sixth a week ago to polish off the changes as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Occidental College and University of La Verne held onto their rankings from the previous poll.

Men's Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 10 Poll

The United States Naval Academy retains the No. 1 ranking in the Collegiate Water Polo Association for a second week as the Midshipmen garnered 100 points to once again rate as the unanimous top selection in the league poll.

Following a 13-7 victory over Princeton University in the ECAC title game at Princeton, Navy holds a seven point lead over the Tigers who moved up from No. 4 to No. 2 in this week's poll.

Overall, the Top 9 positions in the poll reflect the order of finish at the ECAC Championship as Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, Bucknell University, Fordham University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, George Washington University and Harvard University rate No. 3-9.

Iona College, which did not compete at ECACs, rounds out the Top 10 as the Gaels received 54 points, five short of tying Harvard for ninth in the standings.