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Northwest Division Regular Season Champion to be Crowned this Weekend
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- The Northwest Division regular season championship will be decided this weekend as the University of Oregon, University of Oregon "B", University of Washington, University of Washington "B", Western Oregon University, Western Washington University and Oregon State University meet at the Curtis High School Aquatic Center to decide who earns the top seed for the Northwest Division Championship Tournament on March 7-8.
For the No. 2-nationally ranked University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Unviersity Beavers, who both enter the final regular season event with 4-0 records, will look to take the regular season crown, but will have to outlast challenges from Oregon "B", Washington and Western Washington who all enter the weekend with 2-2 marks.
The key game of the weekend will be at 2:40 p.m. on Saturday as the Beavers and Ducks will take to the pool in their only meeting of the regular season. An OSU win over Oregon could clinch the regular season crown and championship No. 1 seed for the Beavers, while an Oregon win may be historical if the Ducks can survive against the other Northwest teams.
For Oregon State, the win could equal a division championship at the end of the season as the last four division champions went undefeated in the regular season and captured the title at the Northwest Championship tournament.
However, the last four champions were the Oregon Ducks.
The dominating program in the division since the 2005 season, the Ducks are in the midst of a 47-game division winning streak dating back to April 14, 2004 and an 8-6 loss to the University of Washington in the championship tournament. Ironically, Washington, the regular season champion, lost in the title game to Simon Fraser University by an 18-8 final to mark the last regular season champion to fail to seal the deal and earn the division championship and automatic bid to the National Collegiate Club Championship.
In regular season play, Oregon has an active 36-game streak going dating back to a 13-9 loss to Washington on March 6, 2004.
In the history of the division, no team has won more than four regular season or division titles as Oregon (2005-08) equalled the 1998-2001 Washington Huskies last year for the most regular season and division titles in the Northwest history.
The complete division schedule is available here.
