Early 2025 Mens Preview

College - Mens
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Given the national league and UOP tournament have given us a little preview of where some of the teams stand, I thought I’d start a new thread to discuss the upcoming Fall season. Here are my early Tiers:

Tier 1: “The Favorites”

UCLA: They lose some key seniors/graduates, but the core of the team is still intact, and they have incredible depth. The only potential weak spot (that may not be weak) is goalie.
USC: They have one of the, if not the best goalie, which is a nice edge to have. Getting an elite player in Vukazic was a big win. I believe they have a strong Serbian center coming in to help replace what they lost in Max Miller. I believe they are the only team who can beat UCLA

Tier 2: “The Contenders”

In no particular order:
Stanford: A semi-rebuilding year as they lost a core group of senior starters. Still have a strong goalie in Temkin, two very good centers. Botond Balogh should have a monster season and Ryan Ohl is emerging as a top scorer. Depth may be an issue pending the announcement of their recruiting class.

Cal: Lose their two best players and two best centers. Word is they have a Spanish goalie coming in who should start right away, and that could solve one of their big issues from last year. Ponferrada will likely be their primary scorer, along with Oprea, Szatmary, and Mirkovic. Center is a question mark.

Fordham: Lose a bunch of seniors from last year, but return a nice core of players (Toth, Provenziani, and Eppel). Unclear how the goaltending will be after losing their starter from the past few seasons. I imagine they will have a new recruit or two that will get playing time as well. I would probably have them in the next tier below normally, but I think this will be an off year for parity.

Tier 3: “The Fringe”

UCI, Pepperdine, Long Beach, CBU, Davis, Princeton and UCSD

All these teams have nice pieces returning and should battle out in the middle. I think any of these teams can punch above their weight at times and also lose some games they should of won. I will be very interested in CBU this year, as they have a great goalie and nice group of players returning from last year’s strong finish. I’m throwing Princeton in this group because I give Dusty the benefit of the doubt, but they lost some of their best players. Wouldn’t be surprised if one of these teams ends up in Tier 2.

Let me know if I’m missing anyone

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Appreciate the very thorough write up

The number of incoming “amateur” Euro players you mention makes it hard to be excited. If I wanted to watch pro Euro leagues I would…

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With Kai Inoue going to Cal..have we ever seen a college team start 3-4 lefties? Oprea, Ponferrada, Szatmary, and Inoue!

Also, if there was a chance for only two MPSF teams in the NCAA tournament this could be it.

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Based on the results from this weekend with San Jose St losing to Pepperdine by 1 goal I suppose they might be in that mix of teams in tier 3 that realistically have no chance of beating anyone good.

UCSB and UOP looking at maybe their worst teams in a while. UOP was bad 2 years ago but we all knew they redshirted guys. This time around, is there much help on the way?

Chase Wilson looks like the answer for Cal at center and yeah at some point do you have too many left handers? Oprea gonna get left in the cold.

It does feel a little like the depth is way down headed into this season where we finally don’t have all these Covid years stacked around the country.

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(mod note: moved this to College Mens)

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San Jose State probably belongs in Tier 3. They always get me thinking they are good then have some unexplainable losses every year. But their goalie is elite

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I think this brings up an interesting dynamic; do we see college polo revert to Center-oriented offenses? Additionally, and this was mentioned on @WPWednesday lots of teams looking for that killer lefty. That combination has been the formula for success across all levels of polo for sure. But with the advent of roster limits and COVID extra year players (and their elite play) exiting, Cal might be some good goalie play away from being a contender again. I wouldn’t bet against!

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Offenses are center oriented, you just don’t notice it because there is so much attention paid to the centers from defenses. The center is really the most important piece. If you don’t have a good one, who can get and hold position, then its pretty easy to shut down an offense with a hard press. Will they get a bigger percentage of goals? Really depends on how skilled the center (think Papa), but the defenses are focused on keeping it away from the centers if possible.

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Indeed @Rbpolo! I wasn’t clear about my point on centers; I meant more scoring from that position.

I try to be objective on that position, especially given my handle here. :wink:

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Good point on center play which sort of begs the question: who are the likely premier centers going into 2026?

Castillo and the Hungarian at UCLA?
Stanford’s center? Is MacFarland done or back for one more?
Wilson at Cal?
USC transfer from Pacific?
Any freshman of note who might make a splash?

Am sure there are others beyond my scope as my knowledge is limited at best but just thought I’d try to kick off the discussion

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I believe that Stanford’s McFarland has played for four years. Unless one of those years qualified as a red-shirt season, I am not sure if he has any remaining eligibility.

At this point, UCLA seems to have the most talent at center. In addition to Castillo, they have Szecsi and Liechty, assuming that he comes back for a final season.

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Let’s do it!

I also think as a general takeaway, is with roster limits we may see more versatile players come to the fore. Maybe UTL’s posting up than in the past to counteract drops on center. But also Centers that can pop out and play outside. Heck, we’ve been seeing this is basketball for a long time now.

Anyway…

UCLA - Castillo is probably the class of the field but his teammate Marcell Szécsi is not far behind given what we’ve seen at NL.

USC - has Jack Martin (lefty) coming back and he’s been beasting it in NL

Cal - Wilson as you mentioned (think he’s underrated) and will thrive at Cal.

Stanford - has Gheorghe (can he get faster?) and Schneider (All MPSF HM rising sophomore), but I think Dash used his one remaining year of eligibility.

UCI - has a giant Wyley Dale (6’8”!) who has also been showing out in NL.

UCSD - Axline probably a tick behind these other guys, but has the bona fides and experience to have a really good year.

CBU - I should know more as they look good, but glad to hear what people think.

UCSB - Same.

Princeton - loses Cara’s but has Johnston who draws a lot of ejections and has game. Not sure who they have coming in.

Brown - Stothart has always been slick and again a level below these other sets, but they have Jake Ehrhardt on staff. That seems to be helping everyone there as it has injected some new energy to the proceedings in Providence.

Fordham - question marks at Set, but so well coached wouldn’t be surprised if they coach up/move one of the young guys (Thorsen) and they emerge.

Harvard - have to mention one of the kinds of players we may see at this position going forward: James Rozolis-Hill. Not playing this year and rumored to be going elsewhere (Stanford?). But he can play the 6 and step out and play 2 or 3. They also have a Stothart who will be the man in center with JRH gone.

Glad to hear what you all think!

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anyone know if Grant Loth will be returning for UCLA? if so, that’s yet another center option for them

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Great write up!
Thanks for all the input

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Loth hasn’t played for UCLA in a long time, I can’t imagine he is playing if he hasn’t been in NL or UOP Cup.

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Fordham has Eppel at center, he is very good, but they lose that huge back up center.

UCLA has the 3 headed monster for another year with Leichty, Castillo and Szecsi.

USC, Martin and I believe they have a legit serbian coming in as a freshmen.

Stanford has the Gheorghe and Schneider will need to make a jump this year.

Cal has some centers on the roster and the transfer, but I wouldn’t say its a strength.

Long Beach has a strong duo in Acosta and Stanley

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“Long Beach has a strong duo in Acosta and Stanley” - I knew I was forgetting someone(s)!

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Princeton has Otto Stothart coming in as a freshman
Pepperdine has both Adam Blum and Max Burstein as incoming freshmen

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Blum is excellent lefty set. Great at holding position and drawing exclusions. Good for Pepp!

Also just saw him in Pacific Cup: Filip Norell - scored a few impressive goals against UCLA, but Pacific is in a rebuild.

Collin Caras coming in for Stanford too…

Which also raises the question: how many of these freshman centers will see meaningful time given the smaller rosters?

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Maybe I am not looking at this correcty, but I would think that smaller rosters would only increase the playing time of incoming freshmen that are on the team.

For the teams that usually roster more than 24, there will now be few players which should equate to more average playing time for each player.

Assuming that there is a 24 player roster limit, is it a given that all of the incoming freshmen will make the team, or will is they be subject to the same cuts as the returning players?