Tigers stay undefeated, Nicolao earns 300th career win

Coming off an undefeated run in the Princeton Invitational last weekend to open its season, the No. 13 men’s water polo team remained undefeated on the road this weekend. Head coach Luis Nicolao notched his 300th career win as the Tigers (6-0) defeated Johns Hopkins and Navy on Saturday, finishing off the perfect weekend with Sunday’s defeat of George Washington.

Princeton opened the weekend against Johns Hopkins (9-2) with a comfortable 15-10 win. The Tigers scored five goals in the first period and held Hopkins to only two. Johns Hopkins rallied for five in the second, but the Tigers mirrored the high-paced offense by scoring four. Princeton was not challenged again, as it scored four goals to Hopkins’ two in the third period and two goals to one in the fourth. Junior center Kayj Shannon led the team with four goals while junior attacker Drew Hoffenberg and freshman utility Jovan Jeremic added three each. Hoffenberg also led the team with three assists. Senior goalie Ben Dearborn had 14 saves over three periods, and sophomore Alex Gow added three in his eight minutes.

Nicolao, in his 16th year as head coach at Princeton, has now earned 302 victories with only 133 losses with the men’s program. He also coaches the women’s program, which has done even better during his tenure, going 348-128. After earning his 300th win, he prepared to take on his old school, Navy (8-9), where he was a three-time All-America selection and the all-time leading scorer in Midshipmen history.

Princeton took care of Johns Hopkins in 2013 as it did twice in 2012, but Navy was another story — the Tigers went 1-2 against the Midshipmen last year. This year, however, the Tigers had no problem dispatching them, winning 12-7. After the first period ended 2-2, Princeton took the lead in the second period by scoring two goals to Navy’s one and kept the Midshipmen to one in the next frame, cementing its lead with four goals in the third and adding five to Navy’s three in the final period. Hoffenberg led the team in goals and assists with four and three, respectively. Sophomore Tommy Nelson had three goals, and Jeremic had two. Gow had nine saves, earning a complete game win after sharing time with Dearborn against Hopkins.

The Tigers traveled an hour down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway for Sunday’s finale against George Washington (8-2), whom they beat twice last year. History repeated itself, as they outscored the Colonials 5-3 in the first and held them to just two more goals for the rest of the game. Jeremic and Nelson had three goals each, while Hoffenberg added two. Gow had 10 saves and Dearborn had five as the two combined for Princeton’s best defensive effort of the season.

After gliding through the first portion of its season, which saw it dominate a litany of East Coast opponents and one ranked team, No. 15 Santa Clara, Princeton will next head west for a packed weekend featuring seven games against California schools, traditionally much stronger than those from any other region. Those schools include No. 9 Long Beat State, No. 2 UCLA and, most noticeably, No. 1 Southern California, which the Tigers will face Saturday. At 13th in the nation, Princeton is the highest-ranked school in the country not located on the West Coast and the second-highest outside of California.