Men's Water Polo: Tigers lose to familiar foe

A brand new team showed up this past weekend at DeNunzio Pool: a well-conditioned, offensively sharp men’s water polo team with a clear objective in mind. No. 21 Princeton (4-4 overall), however, will have to improve upon its performance against one foe when it hosts the NCAA Championship this year: Navy.

The Tigers kicked off the weekend melee with an 11-5 victory over No. 20 Johns Hopkins (5-6) and then notched a 13-9 decision against Fordham (6-7). They followed that up by defeating No. 16 Brown (6-4) to advance to the ECAC Championship match, but a strong No. 13 Navy (9-4) crew managed to upend Princeton 13-7 on Sunday afternoon.

“We were just not as tired this weekend, and we finished our shots,” head coach Luis Nicolao said. “Last weekend we had the opportunities, but we just couldn’t finish, but we really worked on putting the ball away when we had the chance this week, and it showed in our matches.”

Princeton prepared for the ECAC tournament with a non-conference matchup against Johns Hopkins. The first two periods were an intense defensive struggle, as the score was as low as 1-1 after the first and with Hopkins holding a slight 4-3 lead during halftime. But a strong three-point third period propelled the Tigers ahead to 6-4, and the Blue Jays had no response. Princeton held Hopkins to one point for the last 16 minutes of play and added eight notches on the scoreboard in the second half for a healthy 11-5 victory.

Senior utilities Douglas Wigley and Mark Zalewski led the team with three goals apiece, while junior guard Mike Merlone notched 10 saves.

The Orange and Black kept the momentum going in the Fordham match, but it unfortunately didn’t translate to points. The Tigers fell behind 3-0 in the opening minutes, but Princeton quickly turned things around and held a 6-4 lead by the end of the first half. Two unanswered goals in the first minutes of the third period helped the Tigers set the tone for the match, and Fordham just watched as the gap widened. A slight letdown on defense gave the Rams a breath of life in the fourth, but it was too little too late: Princeton used its six-on-five offense to close the game at 13-9.

Wigley led again, this time notching four goals, while senior Scottie Hvidt posted eight saves in the match. Hvidt is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

The win over Fordham set Princeton up for an important semifinal match against Brown, who the Tigers were facing for the second time this season. Earlier in the week, the Tigers lost a heartbreaker against the Bears — with a number of missed opportunities and strong goalie play from Brown — resulting in a point loss to the underdogs. A snappy offense and controlled defense, however, gave the Tigers an early 4-0 lead that was too much for the Bears to overcome. With a 10-6 lead at the end of the third, Princeton controlled the clock and held Brown to two points, and Merlone sealed the deal with eight saves for the 13-9 decision. Junior Jeff Cole and Zalewski led the balanced offense with two points apiece, and six other Tigers chipped in with one goal apiece.

The weekend’s highlight was the Navy-Princeton match, with the Midshipmen easily reaching the finals with a goal differential of 32-10 coming into the final match. The Tigers, with multiple players out because of injury and illness, came in with fire and kept the score low and the match defensive throughout the first two periods. Princeton came into the second half all tied up at four apiece, but it allowed the Midshipmen to slip away toward the end of the third quarter, and Navy pulled ahead, 9-7. Three periods of excellent play could do little for Princeton, which lost control of the game in the final frame, giving up four goals and putting up little, if any, offense in the final eight minutes. Still, the Tigers finished the weekend on a high note, as the team began to show clear signs of cohesion and leadership.

“The freshmen are doing great, and they’ve started to mesh well with the team,” Nicolao said. “We have a deep team this year as we only graduated two seniors, and the seniors have been doing what they need to do these past two weeks.”

Princeton will now use this week to prepare for the start of the regular season, as they face Bucknell on the road and George Washington at home next weekend. Both games, though, will hopefully serve as tuneups for the rematch against Navy the following weekend that will serve as an indicator for the rest of the season.