Men's water polo takes Southerns in battle over Navy

In the semifinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships Oct. 28 the men's water polo team came out flat and despite 11 saves by senior goalie Jon Pharris the Tigers fell 8-4 to UMass.

The loss lit a spark under Princeton, however. The Tigers knew they had not been playing up to their potential all season and wanted to play their best coming into the biggest two tournaments of the season.

Princeton came out the next morning in the consolation game and showed that they were still one of the elite teams in the country, beating Queens 15-14 in a shootout. Junior driver Robert Urquhart tallied seven goals for the Tigers and was helped by sophomore two-meter Dan McKenna who scored three in the victory.

"We weren't really happy about losing to UMass on Saturday, but waking up the next morning and playing really well against Queens was a real turning point for us," Urquhart said.

Following the solid end to ECACs, Princeton came into the Southern Division championships this past weekend in Annapolis, Md., hoping to continue their strong play from the Queens game.

Glory was not the only thing at stake during Southerns though, as the winner would pick up the top seed for Eastern Championships Nov. 17-18 — the tournament that determines the East's representative at Nationals.

After easy early-round victories over Gannon and Mercyhurst, the Tigers faced off against Johns Hopkins in the semifinals with the chance of making it back into the finals of a top tournament.

Pharris once again came up strong in the semis, saving 14 Blue Jay shots and allowing only four goals as Princeton jumped out to a 5-1 lead by halftime and cruised to a 9-4 victory in the second half.

The upperclassmen came through for the Tigers in the victory as junior two-meter Kevin Foster, senior captain Marshall Roslyn and Urquhart each tallied two goals for Princeton.

The sophomore class also was key to the victory. McKenna, defender Derrick Wong and driver D.J. Halliday each netted one goal in the win.

The win put Princeton in the finals against the home team — Navy. The Midshipmen had owned the tournament in the past, winning Southerns every year except for 1992 and 1999 — when the Tigers beat Navy en route to the title.

"For the past two years, Princeton and Navy have been chief rivals in the East," Roslyn said.

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That rivalry has been especially close this year as the teams split their first two games. Princeton won 8-2 on Sept. 22, but Navy responded with a 9-8 win at DeNunzio Pool on Oct. 21.

The final was a tight game in which neither team wanted to let the other get an easy score, and after two quarters of play, the teams were knotted at two.

"These were a couple of really good defensive teams going at it," Roslyn said.

Coming out of halftime the Midshipmen gained momentum and jumped out to a 4-2 lead early in the second half.

The Princeton offense then came alive, however. The Tigers scored three straight goals as Pharris asserted himself as one of the top goaltenders around. Pharris made a number of his 18 saves to shut down the Midshipmen during the run and give Princeton a 5-4 advantage.

Then, with two minutes, 20 seconds left, Princeton set up its normal offense and Roslyn fed a pass down near the goal to McKenna — one of the Tigers' top weapons this season — who turned and fired a shot into the back of the net to seal the game.

Navy got within one with an easy goal as they picked up a loose ball in front of the net and scored with 11 seconds remaining, but Princeton was able to run out the clock and take the championship.

"It's always great to be able to put another banner up in your pool," Urquhart said. "This was the biggest win we had all year, now we just need to carry it over to Easterns."