The OUAZ Men's water polo team is set to participate in the NAIA Finals on the UC Merced campus in Merced, Calif.
 
The teams competing besides the Spirit will be Westcliff, California Maritime, and the host UC Merced.
 
The tournament will be a round-robin format on Friday and Saturday, with each team playing the others.  The two teams with the best records will face off in the championship match on Sunday at 11:00 Pacific (Noon Arizona).
 
The Teams
California Maritime (Cal Maritime)
The Keelhaulers come into the championships with a 4-7 record.  They have played six NCAA Division I schools this season, going 2-5 in seven contests (both wins against San Jose State).  In the games they have played against either NCAA or NAIA schools, not in Division I, the team from Vallejo is 2-2 with wins against Division II Cal State Monterey Bay and Division III school UC Santa Cruz.  They lost to Westcliff and UC Merced in earlier action this season.  No players are listed in the top 10 goals scored on TheFosh.net, the leading NAIA water polo stats website.
 
Westcliff University
The Warriors are coming into the tournament on a three-match slide and a 9-16 record overall.  Westcliff and OUAZ have been in the same tournament three times this season but have only faced each other once (OUAZ victory 18-14).  In a tournament earlier this season where they met both Cal Maritime and UC Merced, the Warriors split, going 1-1 in those matches (defeating Cal Maritime).  Three Warriors are listed in the top 10 goals scored, led by Adam Hodi's 46 goals.
 
UC Merced
The Bobcats will bring their 12-19 overall record into the first match of the championships against OUAZ on Friday.  The NAIA school in the Northern portions of the Central Valley in California opened with six games against California Community Colleges (over 30 schools in the State's community college system sponsor the sport).  In fact, of the first ten matches of the season, eight were against the 2-year schools (5-3 in those matches).  In games against the other schools in this tournament, UCM went 2-0.  Six of the top 10 goal scorers are from UCM, including Killian Nguyen, who has scored 77 goals in their 31 matches.
 
OUAZ
The Spirit comes into the matches with an 11-10 mark.  The Spirit rattled off seven straight victories over two-weekend tournaments in early September.  They outscored their opponents during that stretch by a 122-74 margin.  Jonathan Wong leads the Spirit with 45 goals.
 
The only team that all four schools faced was California State University-Fullerton.  All four schools lost to the Titans.
 
Schedule
Friday, Nov. 10
    10:00 am              OUAZ vs UC Merced
    2:00 pm                OUAZ vs Westcliff
Saturday, Nov. 11
    9:00 am                OUAZ vs Cal Maritime
 
Sunday, Nov. 12
    11:00 am              Championship match
 
All times listed are Pacific Standard Time.