Highly ranked California squads prove too much

The weekend schedule for Princeton (1-3 overall) started against the Tritons on Friday evening, as the Tigers dropped an 11-9 decision to a tough California squad. UCSD took the lead in the first quarter, putting two past sophomore goalie Mike Merlone in the first two minutes of regulation. Princeton quickly returned fire, however, as junior utility Eric Vreeland put the Tigers on the board four minutes into regulation.

The Orange and Black managed to keep it a one-goal game after the first and second quarters, but the Tritons extended their lead in the third quarter to 10-7. A spirited Princeton comeback in the fourth quarter, featuring goals by senior utility and co-captain Brendan Colgan and freshman driver Tommy Donahue, came up just short, saddling the Tigers with the 11-9 loss.

Offensive play was divided evenly among the Tigers, with sophomore center Jeff Cole, Colgan and Vreeland each contributing two goals in the match.

Saturday afternoon, the Tigers went up against No. 15 Santa Clara. They quickly found themselves stuck with a 2-0 deficit after early goals from Broncos utilities Liam Farrell and Nicholas Poggetti. Junior utility Mark Zalewski answered decisively, bringing Princeton back into the game with two quick goals that knotted the score at two at the end of the first quarter.

Zalewski finished with five goals on the night, more than half of the Tigers’ total. The game remained close, as both teams tied up the match seven times, but Princeton was never able to gain the lead. The Tigers entered the fourth quarter down 6-5 but staged a comeback, tying the game at nine with a goal from junior driver Douglas Wigley.

Overtime was not to be, however, as Santa Clara star Farrell crushed Princeton’s hopes by scoring the decisive goal with a sloppy lob from outside the seven-meter line with 19 seconds left in the game.

The Tigers were led by Zalewski’s five goals and sophomore center defender Matt Hale’s three, which gave Princeton a fighting chance throughout the match. Junior goalie Scott Hvidt had nine saves against the Broncos.

The UCSD and Santa Clara matches both proved that the Tigers mean business this season.

“We played a lot of close games this weekend, and we were the only team to play all three California teams, which was a great learning opportunity for us,” Merlone said. “It was a great opportunity to work out the kinks and really focus on communication for our future matches.”

With two important matches under their belts, the Tigers went on to face the toughest opponent of the tournament: No. 3 Stanford, winner of nine NCAA water polo championships. Princeton started strong, playing some of the best defense of the weekend in the first quarter. The Orange and Black held off the quick Cardinal offense throughout the first frame, limiting Stanford to only one goal.

While Princeton’s defenders continued to stuff the Cardinal offense, the Tiger attack was unable to set up a consistent offense of its own, failing to establish a two-meter man at two meters throughout the match and at many times getting pressed out of the field by the strong Stanford defense. Princeton was also 0-8 during its six-on-five opportunities and never won a sprint throughout the match.

Despite the Tigers’ superlative defensive efforts, the Cardinal finally broke through the Orange and Black wall. Stanford put four goals away in the second period and followed that barrage with another five in the third. With the game set to be a shutout, the Tigers finally broke through in the fourth and put two away, making the final score a 12-2 loss.

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“We played so well the first half, and our defense held up really well,” Colgan said. “Stanford’s a great team, and we played with them for a good part of the game. We just broke down the second half. Part of it was our physical conditioning, but also we mentally broke down.”

Princeton finished the weekend with a definitive 14-9 win over No. 19 Brown, taking the lead at the half and never letting go. The Tigers used their drop defense to eliminate the Bears’ firepower from set and continued to dominate perimeter play to finish the weekend with a win for the Princeton squad.