Postseason awaits for Tigers

With the regular season wrapped up, the men's water polo team will head to Lewisburg, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 28 for the CWPA Southern Division Tournament at Bucknell. The top four finishers at Southerns will go on to the Eastern Championships, held in Princeton on Nov. 11 and 12, where they will face the top four finishers from the Northern Division.

No. 15 Princeton (6-2 CWPA, 14-6 overall) has the second seed in Southerns after finishing second in the CWPA Southern Division for the regular season. The Tigers' performance in Southerns will determine their seed going into Easterns.

Princeton faces Washington and Jefferson (2-4, 4-13) first on Saturday. A win will match them against Johns Hopkins (2-6, 13-12) later that day. The Tigers beat Johns Hopkins in the regular season by a score of 14-12.

"We're really hoping we can win at Southerns so that we can get an easier route through Easterns," sophomore utility Alex Edmunds said.

The last time the team won Southerns, in 2004, it went on to win Easterns as well. The Tigers also won Southerns in 2003 and continued to the finals in Easterns, where they lost to Navy.

"Winning at Southerns is a huge advantage for Easterns," senior center and captain Nick Seaver explained. "A win would put us at the opposite side of the draw from Navy and St. Francis, so we wouldn't have to play against them until the final round."

The Tigers might end up facing No. 12 Navy (8-0, 18-5) at Southerns, as well. Navy has the No. 1 ranking in the tournament after finishing the regular season with an undefeated record in the CWPA Southern Division.

"I would say the real competitor at Southerns is Navy," Edmunds said. "They beat us when it didn't matter, and now it matters. We're going to try to come out with some new stuff this weekend to surprise them."

The Tigers played Navy during the regular season in late September at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship, losing 11-9. It was the Tigers' only loss in the three games they played that weekend.

In that game, "we had a very slow start in the first half," head coach Luis Nicolao explained. "It seems like we have been making too many mistakes against Navy. I think at times we are trying to do too much instead of just going out and playing."

As for beating the Midshipmen this time, Nicolao is confident.

"I always love our chances — it is just a matter of playing well for four quarters," he said. "We have focused on our mental approach, and the guys know what we have to do."

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"I know if we play our best we have a good chance of winning," sophomore utility Eric Vreeland said. "We can't look past the teams in the early round, but we know our real competition is Navy, and a good performance against them will set us up for Easterns."

"We always stress taking one game at a time," Nicolao added. "Johns Hopkins will be a very tough game, too. I think we are ready — the important thing is to get through midterms without anybody getting sick. This is always a tough week to do very much, but I feel good about the weekend."

"We're going to go in, play hard and come out on top," Seaver said.