ERIE, Pa. - The Gannon men's water polo team will enter the 2008 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Southern Division Championships November 8-9 at Princeton University's DeNunzio Pool as the sixth seed. The CWPA released the championship seedings Monday afternoon.

Gannon opens the championships Saturday, November 8 against No. 3 Bucknell at 8:30 a.m. The top four teams will advance to the Eastern Championships November 22-23 at the U.S. Naval Academy. The Eastern Championships are water polo's equivalent to the NCAA Regionals in other sports. The Golden Knights concluded the regular season with a 10-8 record, marking the squad's second consecutive winning season and fifth in the program's eight-year history.

The United States Naval Academy will enter the 2008 post-season in familiar territory as the Midshipmen were voted the No. 1 seed. Voted on by the Southern Division coaches from both the East and West regions, the seedings weigh conference head-to-head match-ups between the division teams and all other meetings, including non-conference games, from throughout the season.

Navy, which earned the No. 1 seed the past two seasons on its way to winning the Southern and Eastern championships, was a unanimous selection as the top team by the division's coaches. The Midshipmen are followed by Princeton University, Bucknell University, Mercyhurst College, Johns Hopkins University, Gannon University, George Washington University, Washington & Jefferson College, Penn State Erie-The Behrend College and Salem International University in the seedings.

The Midshipmen's fellow Eastern Region institutions Princeton University and Bucknell University were also unanimous selections as the Tigers and Bison enter the field as the No. 2 and 3 seeds. Division II Eastern Champion Mercyhurst College is the top seeded Western Region team as the Lakers earned the No. 4 seed to edge out Division III Eastern Champion and No. 5 seed Johns Hopkins University of the East Region.

The Western Region controls most of the No. 6 through 10 seeds as Gannon, Washington & Jefferson, Penn State Behrend and Salem International earned the No. 5, 8, 9 and 10 seeds, while George Washington of the Eastern Region garnered the No. 7 seed.

The seedings mark the third consecutive year the Southern Division coaches have voted to seed the tournament as previous seeds were awarded based on finishes in respective regions during the regular season with the top seed awarded to the division that won the Southern Division title the previous season.

The complete 2008 CPWA Southern Division Championship bracket can be found by clicking here.