“Is this undefeated team the best story in college sports?” Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Gay asked readers in November. He was referring to the Fordham water polo team that went on to win all 28 of its regular-season matches, besting East Coast rival Princeton and California powerhouses alike.
The Rams rose to a tie for No. 1 in the nation—higher than any Fordham team ever—after winning their fourth straight Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference title. “We’re in the strongest position we’ve ever been in as a program,” said head coach Brian Bacharach, a former national champion at UC Berkeley who recently completed his 12th season at Fordham.
A big reason for the team’s historic success? Members who are as tightly knit as they are talented.
“What I like the most about playing water polo is the energy [of] being part of a team,” said Jacopo Parrella, a senior from Italy. He and his teammates are a worldly group, with players from as close as Brooklyn and as far as South Africa. First-year student Andras Toth, pictured in action above, is one of four players from Hungary.
After winning the conference title, the Rams earned the No. 3 seed at the NCAA Championship, held at Stanford University. They beat Long Beach State 16-11 on December 6, but their incredible undefeated season—and their quest to become the first East Coast water polo team to win a national title—ended in the semifinals, where they lost to USC in overtime.
Still, the Rams finished with a 32-1 record, their finest season ever, and advanced farther than any Fordham team in an NCAA Championship tournament.
