Men's Water Polo: Navy gets revenge in Southern final

The best way to describe East Coast water polo is inconsistent, and this year has been no exception. Despite ending the regular season atop the league standings, the men’s water polo team finished the season in second place after losing 16-5 to Brown at the Ivy League Championships. The Tigers (20-9 overall, 6-2 CWPA South) then went 2-1 this weekend at Southern Championships, No. 15 Princeton will enter Eastern Championships as the Southern Division’s No. 2 seed.

This weekend, DeNunzio Pool hosted the Southern Division Championships. Last year as the No. 2 seed the Tigers took home the crown for the sixth time by beating Gannon University, Johns Hopkins University and Bucknell University. This year as the defending champions with the No. 1 seed Princeton beat Washington and Jefferson University and then Johns Hopkins but fell to No. 16 Navy 10-5 in the finals.

In the first two games against Washington and Jefferson and Johns Hopkins, Princeton easily controlled the game. The Tigers were able to create a 10-goal lead at the half against Washington and Jefferson.

Against Navy, however, the competition was stiff. For the first half of the game, Princeton traded the lead with the Midshipmen. With Navy leading 5-4 at the half, the game appeared to be headed toward overtime, similar to the two teams’ matchup earlier in the season. However, at the end of the first half the Tigers began to tire, and the Midshipmen stayed their course. Though no team could hold more than a one-goal lead in the first half, Navy continued to net goals for th rest of the game while Princeton remained practically scoreless.

Starting strong, freshman center Matt Weber scored early, but Navy took a one-goal lead at the end of the first quarter. After a big block by sophomore goalie Ben Dearborn, freshman center Thomas Nelson evened the score from outside of five meters and then gave Princeton a 3-2 lead with a skip shot. After Navy evened the score on a penalty shot, Princeton took its last lead with a goal from junior attack Tommy Donahue, who just returned to the pool from a shoulder injury.

After Donahue’s goal, however, Navy started to dominate the Tigers. With a little more than a minute left in the half, Princeton held the lead 4-3. But Navy ended the half with the lead by scoring two goals to bring the halftime score to 5-4. Only trailing by one goal, the game was far from over, but Navy kept scoring and Princeton’s last goal of the game by freshman center Kayj Shannon was a little over two minutes into the third quarter on a double-man advantage.

When the third quarter ended 8-5, the Navy team clapped, and the Navy fans gave a small standing ovation. To them, the game was over. In the fourth quarter, Princeton was held scoreless while Navy scored twice. With about two-and-half minutes remaining, Navy scored their last goal with a lob shot. Then both teams put in the second string — switching everyone, including the goalies.

The game ended on a disappointing note for the last game of the season to be played in DeNunzio. However, with the No. 2 seed for Eastern Championships at Harvard, the post-season is just beginning. Princeton was voted on the Collegiate Water Polo polls as the favorite to win Easterns and go to NCAAs.

The previous weekend, Princeton headed up to Boston for the second annual Ivy League Championships. This is a unique tournament that features both club and varsity water polo teams. Last year, Princeton took home the title by defeating Brown, but this year Brown defeated Princeton 16-5 to become the Ivy Champion.

Reinforcing the idea of inconsistent play, the decisive loss came as a surprise. The Tigers and the Bears had met earlier in the season at the Princeton Invitational. On that occasion, Princeton won 11-6 with a strong third quarter. Like last year, Harvard finished third. The top club team was Columbia, while last year’s top club team, Yale, fell to 6th place behind Dartmouth.