W. water polo hosts Eastern Championships, seeks NCAA berth

The climax of most Division I sports is competing in the NCAA Tournament.

The Tournament gives the team a chance to prove that it is among the nation's elite, but in order to get that chance the team must play well and earn a berth. For the women's water polo team, that means winning the Eastern Championships, which the Tigers will host this weekend in Denunzio Pool.

The 12 teams are divided into four brackets for the opening round of the tournament, with three teams in each. The first round consists of round-robin play and new second round brackets are created based on the results of the opening matches.

In bracket D of the opening round, No. 3 Princeton will take on No. 6 Harvard and No. 10 Bucknell, two teams with which Princeton is very familiar.

The Tigers have won their two previous meetings with Harvard this year by a combined score of 23-10.

At the Princeton Invitational in February, Princeton downed the Crimson, 10-3. Junior two-meter Adele McCarthy-Beauvais and senior captain Cassie Nichols scored three goals apiece in the rout.

Three weeks later the two teams met in Providence, RI for the Brown Invitational, and the Tigers once again walked away with the victory, 13-7.

Princeton was once again led by McCarthy-Beauvais, who netted five goals in the game. Junior two-meter defender Jenny Edwards added four goals while junior driver Melinda Martin chipped in one of her own.

Freshman goaltender Madeline McCarthy stopped eight shots in the win.

After taking on the Crimson, Princeton will battle Bucknell for the fourth time this season.

If recent history is any indication, the Tigers should have no problems dispensing the Bison.

In their first matchup of the year, Princeton easily won, 15-2. McCarthy-Beauvais paced the Tigers with six goals in the contest.

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It only got worse for Bucknell after that, as the Bison suffered a 19-4 throttling at the hands of the Tigers in Washington, DC.

Bucknell was more competitive in the third matchup, however, keeping it relatively close at 11-6. Six Tigers found the back of the net in the game.

Michigan and Hartwick, seeded Nos. 1 and 2 respectively, should pose the biggest problems for the Tigers.

Princeton has played three games with the Wolverines, taking one and dropping the other two. Each game was decided by two goals or less.

In the first contest between the two teams, Michigan prevailed, 9-7, in a back-and-forth game, handing Princeton its first loss of the year.

The Tigers returned the favor three weeks later when the squad took down the Wolverines by the final score of 17-16 at the Indiana Invitational. McCarthy-Beauvais registered an impressive eight goals in the shoot-out.

Despite a seven-goal effort from Nichols, Princeton dropped the championship game of the Southern Division Tournament to the Wolverines, 10-9.

The Tigers lost another close game to Hartwick at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, 11-9.

Should Princeton ride home-pool advantage to victory at Easterns, the Tigers can then set their sights on the NCAA tournament, the climax of water polo in Div. I.