Men's water polo takes two of three in first weekend of NWPC play

The first weekend of the Northeast Water Polo Conference was a whirlwind for the No. 18 Princeton men’s water polo team (8–9, 2–1 NWPC): a loss against Harvard, a win against Brown, and finally a win against MIT after an exciting overtime.

Princeton came into the weekend with two players having earned accolades. Last week, sophomore attacker Keller Maloney received Northeast Water Polo Conference Offensive Player of the Week, and first-year attacker Yurian Quinones received NWPC Rookie of the Week. That certainly didn’t stop these two players from working to improve in their games this weekend.

“[It] shouldn’t really change the way that you play,” said Maloney. “They should be more of a sign that we’re pushing in the right direction.”

Quinones added that two players “don’t make the difference for a game. It’s more of a team effort.”

Princeton started the week with a tough opponent, No. 12 Harvard. The Tigers put up a good fight, with three solid quarters and strong offensive plays. Sophomore utility Mitchell Cooper and first-year attacker Pierce Maloney scored the first two goals of the game, but Harvard took the lead after scoring three goals in little over a minute. Both teams fought hard to tie the score at six by the end of the first half.

The second half was brutal for the Tigers. Once again, Harvard scored three goals in a row to take a 9–7 lead by the end of the third quarter, and they made their last shot with 58 seconds to go, securing a three-goal win. The Tigers ultimately lost to Harvard 12–9, but according to Maloney, “the game was closer than the score appeared.”

“We’re a system-based program and Harvard plays a little bit more freely, so at this point in the season they’re definitely ahead of where we are,” head coach Dustin Litvak said. “We have a lot of younger players, so it just takes us a little bit more time to build the chemistry.”

The loss gave the Tigers determination going into Sunday’s games, a doubleheader against Brown and MIT. As Maloney pointed out, “no one on the team likes to lose,” and they made sure it didn’t happen again on the weekend.

Against Brown, the Tigers started the game out strong, scoring the first three goals and last four goals of the first half and going into the intermission with a 9–4 lead. For most of the third quarter, the Tigers maintained their five goal lead. Brown wasn’t able to score at all in the last four minutes of the game, as first-year goalie Antonio Knez led a strong defense throughout the game. Princeton finished with a 12–9 win, and Maloney, Quinones, and Litvak agreed it was the best game the team had played all season.

The Tigers used their momentum going into their second game of the day against MIT. The game wasn’t looking so promising at first for the Tigers, as MIT was leading 5–3 by the end of the first half. MIT held their lead into the fourth quarter, with a score of 7–4. However, in the last quarter Princeton quickly caught up. With 1:41 to go, the Tigers scored to make it a one point game, and with 34 seconds left, junior utility Alec Mendelsohn scored to tie up the game. MIT tried to fit in a goal before the buzzer, but Knez blocked it.

With the momentum in the team’s favor heading into overtime, Maloney claims there wasn’t “a guy on the team who thought we were going to lose at that point.” He was right.

Maloney scored with 2:35 left and Cooper scored again with 41 seconds remaining, to give Princeton a two goal lead going into the second half of overtime. MIT got in a goal with 1:55 left, but the Tigers defense held them off for the rest of the game, as the Tigers won by a score of 9–8.

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Maloney credited this win to the team’s depth, with two to three strong lines that could keep substituting in with renewed energy until the end. Litvak was proud of his team’s resilience, even if he admitted they didn’t necessarily “deserve” it and were “fortunate to have a chance to still be in the game.”

Looking ahead, the whole team is working towards the same goal: consistency. They want to improve their 6-on-5 and 5-on-6 plays, and Litvak claims their “biggest issue is trying to stay engaged on the defensive end.” The Tigers will have a challenging Saturday next weekend playing against Iona College and No. 17 St. Francis College in particularly difficult pools. But after a two-win weekend, Litvak is confident the team is headed in the right direction.

“Ultimately, I think we have the pieces,” Litvak said. “We really like the athletes we have and what they’re doing in practice, but we just have to be more consistent in the way we play and the way we train ... We’re in a good place heading into the second half of the season.”