DeNunzio pool will host George Washington and Bucknell

A No. 8 national ranking is nothing to be modest about, especially when it marks the highest ever ranking attained by an East Coast team. Since early September, men’s water polo, now ranked No. 12, has made substantial mental and physical strides during the course of its 8-1 season. This team is no doubt making history in DeNunzio Pool, as well as pools of other highly competitive teams across the nation such as Saint Francis University, the United States Naval Academy and University California, Irvine, against whom the Tigers arose victorious.

Naturally, getting to this point was not easy, and as senior and 2013Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches Honorable Mention All-American Selection Andrew Hoffenberg puts it, “We have been focusing a lot on our 6-5 offense and 5-6 defense. When it comes down to big games, they are won or lost on man advantages. Our goal is to hold other teams below 50 percent with our 5-6 defense and hopefully score more than 70 percent of our man-up opportunities.”

There is no doubt that our men will bring these same strategies to the pool in this weekend’s two upcoming matchups against No. 18 George Washington University (6-3 overall, 0-2 CWPA Southern) and Bucknell University (4-5, 2-2), teams which the Tigers will face Sunday on the home front.

“Both teams present a very different challenge,” Hoffenberg said. As you can remember, last Sunday, Princeton’s men came out of the nation’s capitol victorious against George Washington, in a 14-12 victory with both freshman Connor McGoldrick and junior Alex Gow stepping up to the plate with a career-high four goals and 13 saves respectively.

“We played them very close this past weekend,” Hoffenberg said, speaking of this past weekend against George Washington’s team. Indeed, after being down 4-3 the first quarter, the men in orange and black were able to rise 9-7 into intermission. While the Tigers dominated George Washington this past weekend, Bucknell, the men’s second set of competition for this upcoming weekend suffered a loss to Johns Hopkins University, a team which Princeton water polo has defeated once before in two of the matchups against the school, (9/7 10-8 W).

Nonetheless, the same tenacity demonstrated in the preceding nine matchups of the season should be present in DeNunzio Pool this Sunday. The Tigers take on George Washington for the second time at 11 a.m., as well as Bucknell later that afternoon at 3 p.m. These men are fast on their way to moving up the rankings of the nation’s most elite water polo team. From the outside looking in, they make it look easy. But from the inside looking out, Hoffenberg notes that “from game to game, it is clearly visible through our play how much more comfortable we get with each other and how much more we are able to adapt to each others’ playing styles simply from an additional week of practice.” Whether you’re in the stands or in the pool, there is no denying the fact that Princeton water polo will leave the spectators and the competition gasping for air in the remainder of a spectacular season.