Water Polo: Michigan - Champions of the West
Michigan defeats Indiana 5-3 to clinch the CWPA Western Division Championship. Now comes the NCAA tournament in San Diego on May 14.
...to the Water Polo team. That's nine straight Western Division championships for Michigan.
Actually, the next step is the CWPA Eastern Conference Championship tournament, 30 Apr - 2 May hosted by the University of Maryland.
See this link for the schedule.
DC area Wolverines -- get out to College Park next weekend to support Michigan Water Polo on their quest for an NCAA tournament berth.
Isn't it a bit confusing that they just won the CWPA Western Division and now will go after the CWPA Eastern Championship?
Are they in the Western division of the CWPA Eastern conference?
...is divided into three divisions (Northern, Southern, and Western). See this link for the school lineups.
The CWPA has all of the eastern schools who play water polo, so I'm pretty sure that their tournament serves as the entry point into the NCAA tournament for all eastern teams.
If you look at the 2009 NCAA tournament bracket, Michigan was the only eastern team in the tournament.
Marist is in New York
...They play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which interestingly only has 7 teams: Marist, Iona, Wagner, Siena, St. Francis College (NY), and Villanova.
Seems odd that the CWPA (18 member institutions) got one team into the NCAA's last year while the MAAC (7 member institutions) also got one.
I suppose it highlights the vast gulf between the eastern teams and the mountain west/pacific coast teams.
There are only 8 teams allowed so im guessing it would probably be very hard to get an at large bid to the tournament. Michigan and marist probably both got auto bids.
.... not a sport where you want to tell them to "Go Maize!"
