Men's water polo comes up well short of goal at Easterns

It was 10:50 a.m. on Saturday morning. Most students were just waking up and getting ready for brunch. The men's water polo team, however, had just seen its hopes for a berth in the NCAA tournament vanish.

Princeton — the top ranked team in the Southern Division — fell to Massachusetts, 10-7, in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Championships at DeNunzio Pool.

The Tigers were plagued by defensive mistakes all game long after falling behind early. The Minutemen tallied a pair of easy first-period goals to take the lead over Princeton, and forced the Tigers to go on the attack.

Princeton's offense was potent, as sophomore two-meter Dan McKenna was able to tally three goals and juniors Robert Urquhart and Kevin Foster each netted a pair, but defensive lapses throughout the second half left senior goalie Jon Pharris alone and unable to make nearly impossible saves from point-blank range.

The loss dropped Princeton (17-5) out of the title hunt and moved the Tigers into the consolation bracket.

The Minutemen would go on to win the championships with an 8-4 win over Queens in the final.

After such a flat performance in the morning, Princeton came out in the afternoon determined to show that it still had the ability to compete on a high level and dominated Bucknell, winning 13-1.

Ten different Tigers scored in the win over the Bison, led by Urquhart's hat trick.

With the season's hopes over, Pharris was pulled in the second half in favor of freshman Peter Sabbatini, who showed that there is hope in net for Princeton. Sabbatini made six saves and shut out the Bison for his entire stay in net.

The Tigers came out flat again the next morning in the consolation semifinals and fell to Navy, 9-5. Princeton fell behind 3-0 in the first quarter and was never able to come back. In his final game, senior Marshall Roslyn led the Tigers with three goals.