Men's Water Polo: Ranked teams vie for NCAA bid at Easterns

This weekend will showcase the best of East Coast collegiate men’s water polo. As the Tigers head up to Boston for Eastern Championships, they will play not only for glory, but also for an extension of their postseason. This tournament, hosted by Harvard, will be the season’s last for all teams except the Eastern Champion, which will represent the coast at NCAA Championships.

Princeton (20-9) has reached the NCAA Tournament three times before: in 2009, 2004 and 1992. Nationally ranked at No. 19 this week, the Tigers’ second-place finish at Southern Championships dropped them four notches in the rankings and five below their season high of No. 14. In the Eastern Polls, Princeton is currently ranked fourth behind Navy, St. Francis and Brown.

The Tigers have both defeated and lost to No. 16 Navy and No. 17 Brown earlier this season and have yet to face off against No. 15 St. Francis.

Princeton will begin the tournament against Iona. These two teams met twice during the regular season. The Tigers controlled both games, defeating the Gaels 15-4 and 19-9. Though anything can happen in the postseason, the Tigers are favored to advance and play the winner of Johns Hopkins and St. Francis.

St. Francis, the defending champion, is predicted to beat the Blue Jays in its quest to repeat last season’s title. The most likely scenario pits Princeton against St. Francis in the second game of the tournament. The winner will play for the championship and a spot at NCAAs, while the loser will play for third place.

All season the Tigers’ freshmen have been lighting up the scoreboards. On the offensive end, the top three scorers this season are rookies: center Matt Weber with 41 goals, attack Drew Hoffenberg with 35 and center Kayj Shannon with 33. Freshmen also top the leaderboard in assists, with Hoffenberg taking the lead at 31 and attack Sam Butler following with 22. Sophomore attack Kurt Buchbinder rounds out the top three, having garnered 19.

On the defensive end, freshman center Thomas Nelson leads the team with 35 steals. Junior attack Tim Wenzlau and junior defender Billy Tifft follow close behind, with 28 and 27 steals respectively.

Similar to last year, Princeton has a strong young team that has come together to record some incredible wins. However, this season has also been marked with inconsistency, including large losses to Brown and Navy — two teams it could meet this weekend.

Before the Tigers head to Eastern Championships to claim a spot in California at NCAAs, last year’s captain Matt Hale ’11, who remembers his team as having a lot of heart, has some suggestions for this year’s young team. After going against teams who know how to play hard and well under pressure, Hale said, “Everyone on our team matched their intensity but also played with composure, so that’s the advice I would give them.”