Men's Water Polo: Familiar foe halts run at Southerns

The Tigers started the doubleheader on Saturday morning against Gannon, which came into the game with a win against Salem International University the day before. The Golden Knights managed to keep it a one-point game by the end of the first period, with Princeton up, 2-1, but fell apart in the final three frames. The Tigers put away seven goals in the second period, making it 9-2 by the end of the first half. A strong defensive third quarter shut Gannon out completely, and Princeton was able to add another five points to the scoreboard. All told, the Tigers came out ahead with a 14-5 decision and advanced to a critical semifinal match against Bucknell.

Senior left attack Mark Zalewski led the Tigers with three goals in the matchup, two coming from man-advantage opportunities. Sophomore attack Chris Cottrell, junior center defender Matt Hale and senior left attack and tri-captain Eric Vreeland each had two goals in the second-highest scoring game of the season. Junior goaltender Mike Merlone had four saves in the first two quarters, while seniors Scottie Hvidt and Henry Fyfe picked up two and one respectively in the final two periods. Hvidt is a sports columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

With the Southern championships and seeding for Easterns on the line, Princeton would need to kick it up a gear against a strong Bucknell squad that same Friday evening. The Bison, who are in the middle of one of their best all-time seasons, came into the match with hard-earned wins against Princeton and Navy, an extremely rare feat for an East Coast team. The only Bucknell win against the Tigers this season also came in Bucknell’s pool, notorious for a deafening home crowd.

Aware of all of this, Princeton stepped up both defensively and offensively. With both teams playing tight, it would take about four minutes before Bucknell got on the board, taking a short-lived 1-0 lead. Princeton bounced right back with two goals of its own, making it a 2-1 decision, but it couldn’t keep the lead, allowing the Bison to go up 3-2 by the end of the half. This back-and-forth play would continue through the third and fourth, with Bucknell holding the advantage the majority of the time.

Trailing by two with four minutes to play in the fourth, the Tigers needed their own offense to step up. For the majority of the season, they have looked to one player: Zalewski. Despite being shut out for the majority of the match, Zalewski’s lone goal in the final minutes of the fourth made it a one point game, and senior attack Douglas Wigley put away the tying goal with less than two minutes to play, taking the game to overtime.

“One of our strengths is conditioning. We’re probably in the best condition of any team on the East Coast, and when we have long swim sets, it’s in preparation for fourth periods and overtimes,” Vreeland said. “If you told our team that we’re going into overtime with any team, I think we would agree that we would have the advantage, and that’s what we thought.”

With the Tigers in control of the game’s momentum, Wigley would score twice during overtime. A strong defensive performance by Merlone gave the Tigers just enough for a 10-9 victory. Freshman attack Tim Wenzlau led the way for the Tigers, picking up four goals in the matchup, while Wigley came through in the final minutes with three goals. Merlone picked up eight saves in the match.

The championship match Sunday afternoon, however, did not go as well. The Tigers, who had controlled the last minutes of game against Bucknell, could not gain any momentum against the Midshipmen. Exchanging a pair of goals in the first frame, Princeton did little to hold on, allowing Navy to go up to 5-3 by the end of the first half. Despite the halftime break, the Tigers were left on their heels, and they let the Midshipmen control the rest of the match. Navy would go up 8-4 by the end of the third and finish 10-5 at the end of the match.

With a second-place finish at Southerns, Princeton will enter the Eastern Championships as either a third or fourth seed, with the possibility of having to face Navy again before the final match. Princeton will have half a week to prepare for their biggest tournament of the year. The Easterns winner earns a spot in the NCAA Championship, hosted this year by Princeton.

“We need to focus on stepping up our defense. We know who their best players are, and what their strengths are,” Vreeland said. “They don’t make many mistakes, and they take advantage of our mistakes, so if we can take away those opportunities, we can come ahead when it counts.”