While many Tigers will be on the road to Yale Saturday morning, defending the good name of Old Nassau in New Haven, the men's water polo team will be guarding DeNunzio Pool against its Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Eastern Conference opponents who will be in Princeton vying for the Eastern title.
Besides ending the Tigers' season, the Eastern Championships will determine the Tigers' (14-6 overall, 6-2 CWPA) place in their conference for next season.
In order of seeding, this year's championship participants are St. Francis, Navy, Brown, Princeton, Harvard, Bucknell, MIT and Johns Hopkins. Seeding is determined by a team's performance in last year's championship.
Princeton will begin its battle for glory against Harvard (9-10-1) with a Saturday morning showdown at 10:30 a.m. in DeNunzio Pool. The Tigers notched a decisive 14-8 win during the two teams' sole meeting this season in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament on Sept. 23.
The Crimson's sub .500 season shows little sign of improvement over the year. Harvard's performance is especially bad considering they have yet to face any exceptional teams this season; Princeton, on the other hand, has squared off against three top-10 teams.
Princeton's second match, later in the day, pits it against the victor of the Johns Hopkins/St. Francis match.
The best possible second-round scenario for the Tigers would be a game against Johns Hopkins, whom they have defeated three consecutive times this year: a 15-4 blowout and a 14-12 nail-biter — both during the regular season — followed by a decisive 10-5 victory at the ECAC Southern Division championship two weeks ago.
Given Johns Hopkins' record, however, Princeton will probably be facing St. Francis in the second round. Last weekend, the Terriers won their third consecutive ECAC Northern Division title, and they are the defending Eastern champions. The Tigers have not played the Terriers since the semifinals of last year's Eastern championships, where St. Francis won by two goals en route to its title.
On Sunday, the Tigers play for a third time, which may be for the championship if they are victorious in both of their contests on Saturday. If the Tigers lose one or both of the earlier games, they will be playing consolation games for anywhere from third through seventh, depending on the performance of the other teams in the championship.
If Princeton makes it to the final, it will probably face Navy. Given the Midshipmen's performance this year, the team should soundly win their first two games. Navy is currently the top team in the Tigers' division and the one who handed them both of those conference losses. In all, Navy has beaten Princeton four times this season, including the ECAC tournament before conference play, and a one-goal loss at Southerns.
Every match between the Tigers and Midshipmen has been a highly competitive, riveting contest played aggressively by both sides to the ending bell. Unfortunately for Princeton, they have all ended the same way: Navy resting on a oneor two-goal lead and able to return to Annapolis knowing they held off another Princeton rally.
"We are going to see new teams; there are a lot of families coming and a lot of excitement," Wertz said. "We have a good feeling we can pull Navy through."
Given the Tigers' ability to repeatedly be a tough opponent for Navy, Princeton may be able to pull off a win this time, but only if it plays equipped with its best defense. Princeton has maintained a strong offense throughout the year, meaning that scoring is not the Tigers' problem — it is keeping Navy from doing so.
Navy has repeatedly proven itself to be a team that is able to capitalize on Princeton's mistakes — converting man advantages and scoring whenever there is a weakness in the Tigers' defense. This always leaves Princeton attempting to rely on late-game rallies that, so far, they have not been able to finish. If the Orange and Black can crack this nut, they just may have themselves a title.
If you find yourself on campus this weekend, take a stroll to DeNunzio and support the Tigers, who will also be having a fundraiser outside.
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