Men's Water Polo | April 5, 2016

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The largest National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) water polo conference grows by one for the second time in six months as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Board of Directors voted to accept La Salle University for men's competition starting in the Fall of 2016.
 
"We are so pleased to have La Salle join the conference," CWPA Commissioner Dan Sharadin said. "I've been a resident of the Philadelphia area most of my life, so I've had the opportunity to see the school's excellent tradition in athletics and its great academic reputation firsthand. It always strengthens the conference when you can add institutions of this caliber. Likewise, as the only men's varsity program in the midst of a large high school base in the Greater Philadelphia area, they should be immediately successful in recruiting local talent."
 
"We are excited to join the CWPA this fall as we begin our men's water polo program," interim director of athletics Bill Bradshaw said. "The CWPA is a first-class organization and we are happy to call it home."
 
The 20th men's team in the CWPA and the second squad to join the organization on the men's varsity level since September, the Explorers will begin competition in the fall of 2016 in a recently reformatted and currently unnamed conference.  Wagner College, which was announced as a member of the CWPA on September 21, will also join the CWPA for the next men's season in the same unnamed group.
 
Now administering 42.6 percent (20-of-47) teams on the men's varsity level, the CWPA was comprised  of 18 teams (Brown University, Bucknell University, Connecticut College, Fordham University, Gannon University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Iona College, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Mercyhurst University, Monmouth College, Penn State Behrend, Princeton University, St. Francis College Brooklyn, Salem International University, United States Naval Academy, Washington & Jefferson College) in 2015 prior to the addition of the Explorers and Seahawks.
 
"La Salle men's water polo is proud to join the CWPA," head coach Paul Macht said. "It is an excellent fit for our student-athletes and we look forward to competing for championships in the years ahead. Thank you Dan Sharadin and the CWPA for accepting La Salle's application."
 
The largest geographic conference in water polo, with teams located in Connecticut, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island, Washington D.C. and West Virginia, the CWPA will realign with La Salle joining the "South."
 
The two as yet unnamed conferences will crown their own champions, with the duo likely to meet in an NCAA play-in game with a spot in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship "Final Four" on the line.  Under this model, the two CWPA operated conferences, the WWPA, the SCIAC and two At-Large teams will make the postseason.  The "Northern" and "Southern" conferences and two of the other teams (either league champions or At-Large teams) will be involved in play-in games, with the victors taking on the top two seeded teams in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship.
 
The 47th men's varsity team to sponsor the sport under the auspices of the NCAA, the Explorers join the rest of the CWPA administered leagues, six-member Golden Coast Conference, nine member Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (California Lutheran University,  California Institute of Technology, Chapman University, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, Occidental College, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, University of La Verne, University of Redlands, Whittier College), seven-member Western Water Polo Association (California Baptist University, Fresno Pacific University, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Clara University, University of California-Davis, University of California-San Diego, United States Air Force Academy), the four remaining MPSF teams and independent Concordia University-Irvine in the world of varsity men's water polo.
 
Following several years of programs being dropped, the addition of men's water polo at La Salle marks the third time in two years that a new program will begin competition as San Jose State became the MPSF's 10th institution early in 2015 prior to electing to leave to join the Golden Coast Conference.
 
La Salle, which will sponsor a women's varsity team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) starting in the Spring of 2017, is the 15th institution outside California to sponsor both men's and women's varsity water polo.  Brown, Bucknell, Connecticut, George Washington, Harvard, Monmouth, Penn State Behrend, Princeton, Washington & Jefferson currently field both genders in the CWPA, while Iona, St. Francis Brooklyn, Wagner and now the Explorers field women's teams in the MAAC.  Gannon and Mercyhurst recently joined the WWPA over the past two seasons, respectively, for women's competition following prolonged tenures as CWPA institutions.