The Top 5 remained in tact after Week 6 of collegiate men’s water polo play, while several small shifts also highlighted the Oct. 16 Top 20 poll.
#1 Stanford holds down the position for the third straight week after downing #8 Long Beach State (11-5) and #13 UC Irvine (16-7). Dylan Woodhead put in four goals to lead the Cardinal against LBSU, while Ben Hallock logged a hat trick vs. the Anteaters.
#6 Pepperdine moved up a spot from #7 after edging then #6 Cal 13-12 in overtime thanks to a Curtis Jarvis game winner with five seconds remaining. Marko Asic and Balasz Kosa notched hat tricks in the upset.
With the loss, Cal dropped two spots to #8.
Long Beach State lost its lone match of Week 6, falling to #1 Stanford 11-5, but still managed to climb one spot to #7.
Harvard and UC San Diego swapped spots, checking in at #9 and #10 respectively.
UC Irvine and UC Davis also flip-flopped with the Anteaters checking in at #12 and the Aggies falling a spot to #13. Bucknell and George Washington also were part of the one-spot ranking changes with the Bison taking over at #14 and the Colonels dropping to #15.
The biggest move of the week saw St. Francis Brooklyn fall four spots from #16 to a tie for #20 after dropping a 13-5 decision to then #19 Princeton. That opened the rankings for Fordham, Pomona-Pitzer and Princeton to each climb one position to 16 through 18 and for San Jose State to reenter the Top 20 at #19 after receiving votes a week ago.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps earned a spot among the vote getters after recording a 9-8 win over #18 Pomona-Pitzer to open the Week 6 upsets. Ethan Lewis put in the game winner for the Sagehens, notching his fourth goal of the game, to cap the team’s rally from down 8-6.
Oct. 16 CWPA Men’s Varsity Top 20
| Rank | Team | Week 5 Poll | Points |
| 1 | Stanford University | 1 | 98 |
| 2 | University of California-Los Angeles | 2 | 96 |
| 3 | University of the Pacific | 3 | 90 |
| 4 | University of Southern California | 4 | 84 |
| 5 | University of California-Santa Barbara | 5 | 80 |
| 6 | Pepperdine University | 7 | 75 |
| 7 | Long Beach State University | 8 | 67 |
| 8 | University of California | 6 | 66 |
| 9 | Harvard University | 10 | 59 |
| 10 | University of California-San Diego | 9 | 58 |
| 11 | Loyola Marymount University | 11 | 49 |
| 12 | University of California-Irvine | 13 | 43 |
| 13 | University of California-Davis | 12 | 40 |
| 14 | Bucknell University | 15 | 33 |
| 15 | George Washington University | 14 | 26 |
| 16 | Fordham University | 17 | 22 |
| 17 | Pomona-Pitzer Colleges | 18 | 17 |
| 18 | Princeton University | 19 | 15 |
| 19 | San Jose State University | RV | 10 |
| 20 (T) | St. Francis College Brooklyn | 16 | 9 |
| 20 (T) | California Baptist University | 20 | 9 |
| RV | Whittier College | RV | 5 |
| RV | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges | NR | 4 |
| RV | Santa Clara University | RV | 1 |
| RV | Brown University | RV | 1 |