Men's Water Polo: Team takes Ivies, Southerns

No. 17 Princeton (17-7 overall, 8-2 CWPA Southern Division) began Southerns by taking on Gannon (12-10) in the quarterfinals and won 13-4. The Tigers took a decisive lead early in the match to put Gannon at a 4-0 deficit after the first quarter, and the Golden Knights could never catch up.

The team saw a strong return from sophomore attack Tommy Donahue, who had been out with an injury. Donahue scored a team-high three goals, while sophomore attack Tim Wenzlau, junior attack Chris Cottrell and freshman attack Kurt Buchbinder each scored two to pace the Princeton win. The quarterfinal win also solidified Princeton’s spot in the Eastern Championships, which will be held in two weeks.

In the next round of the tournament, Princeton took on third-seeded Johns Hopkins (16-14, 5-6) and defeated the Blue Jays 9-6. Donahue and Buchbinder both led the offense again, and scored three and two goals, respectively. Senior goalie Mike Merlone made 10 saves to help the Tiger cause.

The Tigers took the lead early, finishing out the first quarter up 2-0. However, by halftime, Hopkins evened the playing field with three goals in the second quarter to Princeton’s one. The score remained tied 5-5 after the third quarter, and the Tiger offense finally broke through to retake the lead and scored four goals in the final eight minutes.

The championship game put Princeton and Bucknell (13-14, 4-8) head to head again for the fourth time this season. Of the first three matchups, the Tigers won the first two 9-6 and 7-4 but lost the last game 9-4. Princeton pulled out another victory against the Bison with an 8-6 win. Cottrell contributed four goals for the Tigers, with Donahue again helping the offense with two goals. Donahue now has 33 goals on the season, and Wenzlau trails him with 32.

The Bison seemed to be on track to win the game at halftime, as they were winning 4-2. But the Tigers had a big offensive showing in the third quarter, scoring four goals to Bucknell’s two, and then adding two unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to secure the Southern Division championship.

The previous weekend, Princeton took part in the Ivy League tournament. Although the tournament has been mistaken as the inaugural Ivy League water polo tournament, it has been a long time coming. The first occurred in 1978, when all of the schools played under club status.

Princeton played two games on Sunday. Its first game was against Yale and its second, the championship game, was against Brown.

In the game against Yale, Princeton made easy work of the Bulldogs, with a final score of 11-5. The Tigers took a 4-0 lead at the beginning of the first quarter and never trailed.

Yale’s club team, not expecting to win, enjoyed the chance to play a high-level game.

“We were excited to play Princeton and I am happy we got a few good shots up,” Yale utility Paul Orland said.

Against Brown, Princeton trailed through the third quarter before tying up the game early in the fourth quarter. The Tigers and the Bears then faced off in overtime. The first overtime period passed scoreless. In the second overtime period, Brown scored and Princeton answered with two goals to win the game. Sophomore attack Tim Wenzlau scored with 52 seconds remaining to give the Tigers a 7-6 win.

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Senior center defender Matt Hale led the way with three goals in the win. Merlone had a solid performance in goal, notching 15 saves.

The tournament was well received by participants. About 10 years ago, the women’s water polo teams unsuccessfully tried to organize an Ivy League tournament. This time, however, the Collegiate Water Polo Association and USA Water Polo stepped up to the challenge.

Bill Smith and Mike Graff, chairman and secretary of USA Water Polo, respectively, both attended and helped organize the tournament. Their goal for the Ivy League championship was to spread the sport of water polo and encourage the club teams to become varsity. In order for a sport to be officially sanctioned by the Ivy League, at least five universities must have it as a varsity sport. Further, if six universities have a varsity water polo team, an Ivy League university is guaranteed a spot at the NCAA championships. As of now, however, only three Ivy League universities have varsity water polo programs.

In a crossover of club and varsity teams, graduate students and varsity swimmers — and even a varsity baseball player — jumped into the pool to play water polo. As Penn head coach Antonio Merlo said, “It is a beautiful thing when a club team gets the chance to play varsity.”

The theme of the tournament was friendly play.

“The point of playing in the tournament was not winning, but maintaining the connection among the Ivy League schools,” Columbia utility Barry Weinberg said.

That is not say that some teams didn’t come ready to battle.

Cornell entered the tournament with the lowest seeding, no coach and with its two captains unable to participate due to other commitments. The Big Red opened with a loss to third-seeded Harvard. They then beat Penn, the top-seeded club team, and Dartmouth, the fourth-seeded club team. Cornell finished in fifth place overall and second place for the club teams.

“We played as a team; it wasn’t just one individual,” Cornell’s sophomore driver Dylan Spitz said about the team’s success.

Although some teams may have been discouraged by a 22-5 loss in the first game of the tournament, Cornell was able to put it into perspective.

“We love playing club teams, but when you play varsity you know you are going to get shit on,” Spitz said.

Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao expressed hope that the tournament would take place again next year, perhaps hosted by a club team. For him, the Ivy League tournament helped spread the sport and gave the Tigers the opportunity to “play well and have some fun,” he said.