Princeton falls just short at Southerns

The Tigers made it to the finals of the Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division Tournament last weekend only to get cut down again by an old rival. No. 15 Princeton (14-6 overall, 6-2 CWPA) was seeded second in the tournament and ultimately fell to top-seed Navy by just a single goal.

On the path to the finals, the Tigers defeated Washington & Jefferson on Saturday by a score of 14-9. The Tigers seized control early in that game and went into the half with an 8-3 lead.

"The great thing about the Washington & Jefferson game is that we got to play a lot of players," Coach Luis Nicolao said. "It was wonderful to get all of our players a chance to play." Sophomore utility Alex Edmunds led the offense with three goals, and eight other Tigers scored in the game.

The Tigers were pitted against Johns Hopkins in the semifinals later that day. Though the score was tied at three apiece after the first quarter, the Tigers outscored Hopkins, 2-1, in the remaining three quarters to put up a 15-10 win. Sophomore utility Eric Vreeland and senior utility Reid Joseph led the offense with four goals each. Junior goalie Scott Syverson made nine saves in the game.

"It was nice to come out and play well early and get the win," Nicolao said. "Our team defense was strong. We came out early and played some good team defense that led to some easy goals."

"We came out, played and won," senior center and captain Nick Seaver said. "We try not to overlook the first two games, but we don't worry too much about them either. We executed our game plan and played well as a team."

Navy yet again

These two wins helped the Tigers advance to the championship game, where they faced a familiar foe in Navy. The Midshipmen finished the regular season undefeated in the Southern Division. In early October, the Tigers lost to Navy by a score of 9-7 in a regular season matchup. In the Southern championship game, the Tigers fell again, this time by a score of 11-10.

"I knew we were ready to play them," Nicolao said. "Unfortunately, some things went wrong in the beginning. Early in the game we had some chances to make some shots and give ourselves a nice lead, but we missed them and kept Navy in the game."

Neither team had clear control of the game. Princeton went up 2-1 in the first quarter but fell behind 4-3 going into the half. Navy extended its lead to 8-6 after the third quarter. The Tigers tied up the score at 9-9 but went down by two goals with one minute, 42 seconds left in the final quarter. Senior driver Chris Kelsch made the final goal of the game with 1:30 remaining in the game, but the Tigers could not capitalize on having possession and a man advantage with 16 seconds remaining in the game. Six Tigers scored in the game, and Syverson made ten saves.

"I wouldn't say that anything went wrong — Navy has an incredible defense and it's hard to score on them," Seaver said. "They're great at capitalizing on the mistakes that we made. We gave them opportunities by missing shots. In a championship match we have to play mistake-free. If it's a one-goal game and you make two mistakes you've lost. It's the fun but painful part of the game."

"I am not sure if we did anything different [from the regular season game]," Nicolao said. "In each game they have made the shots that have counted, and we have missed too many."

As for the possibility of facing Navy at Easterns, "I would love that chance," Nicolao said. "But we have to win two games on Saturday to even have that opportunity."

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"We're ready to face them again," Seaver said. "Everyone will be hyped to play them, but we won't be looking past our first two games. The talent and the drive to win are definitely there, but we need our focus to pull us through."

Princeton finishes its season this weekend, when it hosts the Eastern Championships at DeNunzio Pool. The Tigers will face Harvard in their first-round game.