Two-time defending NCAA champion UCLA men’s water polo opens its 2026 season Saturday at the Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif. The top-ranked Bruins play a doubleheader at Canyonview Aquatic Center, facing No. 20 Saint Mary’s in a morning matchup before taking on Bucknell in the afternoon. UCLA will also meet No. 4 California Friday for an exhibition contest at Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex in Coronado, Calif.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE
Opponent: No. 4 California (Exhibition)
Venue: Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex (Coronado, Calif.)
Date: Friday, Aug. 28
Time: 5 p.m. PT

Opponent: No. 20 Saint Mary’s
Venue: Canyonview Aquatic Center (La Jolla, Calif.)
Date: Saturday, Aug. 29
Time: 9:20 a.m. PT
Watch ($): https://tinyurl.com/37uuk4z5
Live Stats: https://www.thefosh.net/live/20010

Opponent: Bucknell
Venue: Canyonview Aquatic Center (La Jolla, Calif.)
Date: Saturday, Aug. 29
Time: 4 p.m. PT
Watch ($): https://tinyurl.com/2bmfypxn
Live Stats: TheFOSH.net

SERIES HISTORY
Series vs. Saint Mary’s: first meeting
Series vs. Bucknell: UCLA leads 9-0
Most Recent vs. Bucknell: UCLA won 24-10 on Sept. 6, 2025

BRUINS TOP PRESEASON POLLS
UCLA enters 2026 ranked No. 1 in the CWPA Varsity Top 20. The Bruins also top the MPSF Preseason Coaches’ Poll. USC, Stanford and California round out the top four on each list. The Bruins received eight of 11 first-place votes in the MPSF poll, with USC collecting the other three. UCLA won the league’s regular-season title in 2025, with USC prevailing in the MPSF Championship Tournament. The Bruins ultimately sat atop the final CWPA rankings as NCAA champions. They held that spot in 10 of 16 installments.

LOOKING BACK ON 2025
UCLA men’s water polo captured its program’s 14^th NCAA championship and No. 125 for the UCLA athletic department in 2025, capping the run with an instant classic against top-seeded USC at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. The Bruins defeated their crosstown rival, which won the MPSF Championship Tournament 14 days earlier, in an 11-10 result sealed by Most Outstanding Player Frederico Jucá Carsalade’s buzzer-beating goal. They finished 27-2 on the year, avenging a pair of losses to the Trojans. It was a record-setting campaign for UCLA, which shattered its program record with 497 goals. Ryder Dodd led the MPSF with 98 of them and repeated as the Peter J. Cutino Award winner and the ACWPC Player of the Year.

BACK FOR MORE
The Bruins return 20 members of their 2025 NCAA championship team, led by four ACWPC All-America honorees. Junior attacker Ryder Dodd, who has twice swept the national player-of-the-year awards while scoring 200 career goals (98 in 2025), leads the way. Joining him is fifth-year attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade, the reigning NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player who piled up 35 goals, 37 assists and 36 steals in 2025. The league leaders in earned exclusions, junior utility Peter Castillo (76), and assists, senior utility Ben Liechty (63), also return. UCLA, which found the back a program-record 497 times in 2025, brings back seven of its top eight goal scorers.

DECORATED DODD
Ryder Dodd was named the 2026 Peter J. Cutino Award winner during a ceremony June 6 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The Cutino Award is presented annually to the best collegiate men's player and the best collegiate women's player. Dodd earned the honor over fellow finalists Robert López Duart and Mihailo Vukazic, both of USC. Dodd, who also won the Cutino Award in 2024, became the first Bruin to repeat as winner since Sean Kern collected the first two in 1999 and 2000. Nicolas Saveljic (2020) and Garrett Danner (2015) have also been bestowed the prestigious honor following standout seasons at UCLA. A Long Beach, Calif. native, Dodd has swept college water polo's player-of-the-year awards twice. He was previously named ACWPC Player of the Year, a national honor, and MPSP Player of the Year to recognize his stellar 2025 campaign. Dodd was also tabbed a first-team ACWPC All-American for the second time.

WHO’S NEW?
Nine new Bruins – five freshmen and four transfers – join the fold in 2026. Serbian utility Luka Gladović (Belgrade, Serbia/VMŠSS “Milutin Milankovic”) brings senior national team experience into his first collegiate season. He was Most Valuable Player of the 2023 LEN European U17 Championships. Attacker Connor Colman (Seal Beach, Calif./JSerra Catholic HS), attacker Flynn Guenther (Redondo Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS) and utility Tristan Tucker (Moraga, Calif./Miramonte HS) all helped Team USA claim silver at the 2026 World Aquatics U18 Championships. Utility Andrew Wallace (Tiburon, Calif./Tamalpais HS) rounds out the quintet. UC Santa Barbara transfer attacker Danilo Dragović (Budva, Montenegro/JU SMŠ “Danilo Kis”) logged a Big West-best 83 total points in 2025 and received ACWPC All-America honorable mention the year prior as a freshman. Also coming in is a trio of Stanford transfers: attacker Chase McFarland (Berkeley, Calif./Berkeley HS), defender Jack Merrill (Old Greenwich, Conn./Rye Country Day School) and goalkeeper Griffen Price (San Carlos, Calif./Sacred Heart Preparatory). McFarland totaled 52 goals in three seasons of action with the Cardinal, while Merrill scored 25 in two. Price stopped 176 shots across 28 games in the cage.

LENDING A HAND
Adam Wright completed his coaching staff Aug. 17 with the hirings of assistant coach Jake Liechty and assistant coach/technical coordinator Kyle Boal. Assistant coach Nico Tierney remains from the 2025 NCAA championship-winning team. Liechty joins the Bruins following seven seasons at UC Irvine, including the final two as an assistant coach. He helped guide his alma mater to a combined 33-21 record on the pool deck. Liechty added USA Water Polo to his coaching résumé in 2026, helped the U18 team win silver at the 2026 World Aquatics Championships. Boal moves to the bench from his role of director of operations, which he held for UCLA’s men’s and women’s water polo programs following his graduation from the school in 2023. In addition to handling day-to-day logistics, he played direct parts in travel, scheduling, budgeting and equipment. UCLA water polo’s external reach factored into Boal’s duties, as well, through fundraising, social media and NIL coordination. He also oversaw the hiring, training and development of student managers.

THE WRIGHT STUFF
Already a member of both the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame and the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, head coach Adam Wright added to his decorated résumé in 2025. The UCLA’s men’s water polo program captured its second NCAA championship in as many years, beating crosstown rival USC in an 11-10 thriller, and sixth with Wright at the helm. He has now helped collect 11 total NCAA water polo titles for his alma mater: six as the men’s head coach (2014, 2015 2017, 2020, 2024 and 2025), three as a men’s player (1996, 1999 and 2000), one as the women’s head coach (2024) and one as a women’s assistant coach (2009). Wright in 2025 also earned his fifth MPSF Coach of the Year honor — and third in a row — as well as his fifth ACWPC National Coach of the Year selection. He boasts a 397-70 (77-26 in MPSF play) record across 17 seasons on the men’s side and was 172-42 (36-13) over eight with the women.