Water Polo Enters National Top 20 Rankings

ridgeport, Pa. — (September 25, 2019) - The Men's Varsity Water Polo National Top 20 and Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Top Five Polls were released on Wednesday for week three of the 2019 water polo season. Among the newcomers to the polls is the Fordham Rams, who for the first time since 2017, cracked the National Top 20 poll at #16, while also taking over the #1 spot in the MAWPC Top Five poll. Fordham earned 20 votes in this week's national poll, after receiving votes in last week's poll. The bump in the polls comes a few days after the Rams (9-2, 3-0 MAWPC) pulled off a 4-0 week at the Bison Invitational, which included an upset win over then-#13 Bucknell, the team's first win over the Bison since 2014. The 9-2 start is Fordham's best through 11 games since 1981, which so far includes three wins over teams that were either nationally ranked at the time or receiving votes for the top 20. Fordham has been led this season by the scoring duo of Jake Miller-Tolt and Dimitris Koukias, who rank first and second in points, as well as the goalkeeping of Bailey O'Mara. All three have won weekly awards from the MAWPC this season. Miller-Tolt is the team leader in goals (41), assists (26), and points (74), while Koukias is second in goals (35) and points (39), while being the team leader in exclusion (24) and penalties drawn (4). O'Mara is averaging 10 saves a contest to go with 16 steals, three assists, and four penalty blocks. The Rams will have an immediate challenge to stay in the National Top 20, as Fordham hosts a pair of league matches on Saturday, September 28th against #19 George Washington at 10:00 AM, followed by a 4:30 PM match against Johns Hopkins.