Men's Water Polo: Defense dominates tourney

After securing a No. 2 seed entering the 12-team Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship this weekend, the men’s water polo team finished third in the tournament by defeating No. 20 Bucknell on Sunday 9-6.

The No. 17 Tigers (5-2) won their first game of the tournament on Saturday, defeating Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3-3) 6-4, but fell later in the day 7-6 to No. 13 St. Francis (9-0).

The win over MIT marked the Tigers’ fourth win in a row. Senior goalie Mike Merlone made six saves to shut out the Engineers in the first half. He then turned action over to freshman goalie Ben Dearborn during the second half, who also tallied six saves. Meanwhile, sophomore attack Tommy Donahue scored four times, while junior attack Chris Cottrell and senior center defender Matt Hale also added goals.

Later that day, the Tigers’ defense held St. Francis to only seven goals, which resulted in the Terriers’ lowest-scoring game yet this year. Merlone tied his own season high with 10 saves, and the game was tied until 2 minutes remained, when St. Francis put it away for the win.

“The game on Saturday was a tough loss for us because the game really could have gone either way,” Merlone said. “We had some missed chances and so did St. Francis, but regardless we were happy with the way we played.”

Despite the loss, junior center Mike Helou led a well-spread offensive effort with two goals, with a goal apiece from Cottrell, Donahue, and center defenders sophomore Jack Ruth and freshman Connor Still. St. Francis went on to win its sixth ECAC Championship in seven years, after losing to Navy last year.

The Tigers rallied for Sunday, though, playing against the top seed of the tournament, Bucknell. “We knew coming into the game on Sunday that we were going to try to get everyone playing time and we were going to have fun with it,” Merlone said.

The Tigers controlled the game from the start, scoring three goals immediately. Donahue, senior attack Tommy Parolin, and sophomore attack Tim Wenzlau, the reigning Southern Player of the Week, all netted two goals for the Tigers, while Cottrell, Hale and sophomore center defender Billy Tift each added a goal as well.

Though the Tigers finished second at this tournament last year, they still have one more win than they did at this time last year. They head to the Maryland area this coming weekend to play Johns Hopkins and Navy on Saturday and George Washington on Sunday. Navy is the team’s biggest rival, and this will be the first meeting between the two teams this season.

“We were happy with the way we played, and this weekend’s games really don’t mean anything in the scheme of things,” Merlone said, as the Tigers look to repeat their stellar 2009-10 season.