M. water polo finishes weekend 3-1; only loss to No. 9 Navy

In his first game back from a preseason thumb injury, junior defenseman Dan McKenna scored seven goals in the men's water polo team's 18-11 victory over Johns Hopkins on Friday in Maryland.

In the second game of the preseason, McKenna jammed his thumb against the side of another player's head during an offensive play. He had missed three games due to the injury.

"It feels great now," McKenna said. "Pretty much 100 percent better."

The Tigers then traveled to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA for the weekend tournament, where they soundly defeated George Washington University and Bucknell, but fell to Navy by the score of 14-13.

On Friday, the Tigers never let Johns Hopkins into the game. In the first half, McKenna tallied four of his seven goals as Princeton jumped out to an 11-2 lead.

"One thing was that Hopkins has a shallow pool," McKenna said. "A lot of East Coast high schools have shallow bottom pools. Coming from Philadelphia, I'm a little more used to playing in a shallow pool. You can kind of use the bottom to your advantage. I think a lot of the guys from California don't like it."

Senior co-captains Kevin Foster and Robert Urquhart each contributed three goals to the cause.

Sophomore goalie Peter Sabbatini manned the net for the first three quarters, recording six saves while allowing only six goals. Freshman goalie Gant Morgner came on in the fourth quarter, adding three saves in Princeon's 18-11 win.

On Saturday, the Tigers traveled to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, where they matched up against No. 9 Navy.

The Tigers found themselves trailing 6-3 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Tigers were able to fight back, tying the game at 7-7 with two minutes left in the half. Navy then retaliated, scoring twice for a two-goal lead at halftime.

After another Princeton goal, Foster tied the game up at 9-9, but Navy pulled away again with two more goals in the third quarter.

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With just four minutes left in the game, the Tigers caught up for the third time when Foster netted his fifth goal to make it 12-12. However, their efforts came up short, as Navy scored twice more to close the game out at 14-13.

Later that day, the Tigers quickly bounced back from the loss against Navy by pulling off a decisive win against George Washington Univer-sity.

Things were never really close, as the Colonials struggled to put up half as many goals as the Tigers did. Princeton opened up with a 6-2 lead, which expanded to 13-6 by the end of the half.

Eleven different Tigers scored, while Morgner recorded eight saves in the 23-11 victory.

Like the win against Hopkins, the battle against George Washington highlighted the Tigers' strengths and demonstrated how well they can play when they put all the aspects of their game together.

"We played very well as a team, countering effectively to both offense and defense." Sabbatini said.

"We took advantage of all the opportunities that Hopkins and George Washington presented. The team passed the ball well and found the open man who converted a high percentage of those opportunities."

In the final day of competition, the Tigers defeated Bucknell, 15-11. Princeton opened up the first quarter with a 4-3 lead, and continued to put pressure on the Bison. After finding themselves in the hole 8-5 at the half, Bucknell put up a fight in the third quarter, pulling to within one at 10-9.

The suspense was short-lived, however, as Urquhart and freshman two meter defenseman Jamal Motlagh shut down Bucknell's chances of a comeback. The two each scored in the final minutes of the third quarter, increasing the lead to 12-9.

In the final quarter, Motlagh netted three more goals to secure the Tiger victory.

With the victory, Princeton improved to 5-2 on the season. The Tigers now look towards the North/South tournament this coming weekend, which will be held at DeNunzio Pool.