CAPE COD, Mass. -- 2007 and 2008 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Eastern Champion and No. 13-nationally ranked the United States Naval Academy will lead the field at the 2009 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Men's Water Polo Championship on September 18-20 at Princeton University as the Midshipmen earned the No. 1 for the tournament.

No. 20 Princeton University, No. 16 Brown University, Bucknell University, No. 20 Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fordham University, George Washington University, Harvard University and Connecticut College round out the No. 2-10 seeds as 10 of the CWPA's best will battle for early season bragging rights in a near certain pre-showcase of the 2009 Eastern Championship.

The first game of the three-day championship will be held at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 18 and features No. 7 Fordham University against No. 10 Connecticut College. No. 8 George Washington University will face No. 9 Harvard University in the second game slated for a 9:15 p.m. start.

Twelve games will be held on Saturday, September 19 with the first match of the day starting at 9:00 a.m. featuring No. 3 Brown University and No. 6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. No. 2 Princeton University will face the Fordham University/Connecticut College winner at 10:15 a.m. and No. 1 United States Naval Academy will face the George Washington University/Harvard University winner at 11:30 a.m. No. 4 Bucknell University will face No. 5 Johns Hopkins University at 12:45 p.m. The six afternoon games are to be determined based on the morning results.

The championship game of the 10-team tournament will take place at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 20.

Teams were seeded based on their finish at the 2008 Eastern Championship hosted by Navy last year.  The field was expanded to its current 10-team format by the CWPA league coaches at the organization's Annual Meeting in June from the previous eight team format.  For teams which did not compete at the 2008 Eastern Championship, and to fill positions vacated by Eastern qualifying programs which will not compete at the ECAC Championship this year, place finish by the remaining eligiible programs determined which teams were added to the tournament field.