“Coming out here and playing the top teams is a great experience for us, because we get to see what they do differently,” senior center defender and co-captain Matt Hale said. “We prepare the same way, we expect to come out and compete, but the difference is we don’t expect to win and losing isn’t a bad thing as long as we play harder and get better.”
The No. 17 Tigers (9-6 overall, 3-0 Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division) began their weekend with a tough 13-2 loss against No. 2 UCLA (8-2).
Princeton started strong, holding UCLA to only one goal in the opening quarter, but the Bruins improved their lead to 6-1 by the half. UCLA continued to overwhelm Princeton defense, scoring seven goals in the second half to Princeton’s one, which came from freshmen attack A.J. Galainena. Junior attack David Aynat also had a goal in the game.
The Bruins dropped the championship match to No. 1 University of Southern California on Sunday, 9-8.
Next up for Princeton was No. 10 Loyola Marymount (8-7), who last faced the Tigers in the third-place game of the NCAA Division I Championship last year.
The Lions clearly hadn’t forgotten that meeting, which Princeton won 6-5, and punished the Tigers in a 9-1 loss.
Sophomore attack Tim Wenzlau had the only goal, scoring in the second quarter. Senior goalie Mike Merlone, who split net time with freshman Ben Dearborn in the UCLA match, had eight saves against the Lion attack.
The Tigers played a much closer game in their first match Sunday against No. 13 St. Francis (14-3). This meeting was the second between the teams this season, as the East Coast opponents had already met in the ECAC Championship semifinals on Sept. 18, with the Terriers winning in a close 7-6 match. Princeton once again fell short, dropping a 13-11 decision.
The Terriers were up 8-4 at the half, but seven goals in the last half for the Tigers brought the game closer.
Freshman attack Kurt Buchbinder led the team with four goals while Hale and sophomore center defender Jack Ruth each scored twice.
Merlone had five saves in the loss.
The exhausted Tigers rallied for the 15th-place game against Redlands, winning 10-8. Though tied at the half, a five-goal third quarter put Princeton ahead for good.
Junior center Mike Helou had four goals while fellow junior attack Chris Cottrell had two. Ruth, Wenzlau, Buchbinder and sophomore center defender Billy Tifft also contributed a goal apiece, evidence of the team effort on offense that the Tigers displayed this weekend.
Hale summed up the lessons learned from the weekend.
“We were pretty high off our recent success, but coming out [to California] and playing teams like UCLA is completely different,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing if we get humbled, as long as it means we’re willing to work hard coming out of it and continue to improve.”
Princeton will return to DeNunzio Pool Saturday to host Bucknell in its home opener for the CWPA Southern Division.
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