The men’s water polo team traveled on Friday to Santa Clara, Calif. to compete in the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament, hoping to regain momentum after two losses earlier in the week against No. 7 University of the Pacific and No. 2 University of California, Berkeley.
The Tigers (19–6 overall, 4–1 NWPC) — ranked No. 12 as of Oct. 20 — defeated Santa Clara University on Friday and split the following day, claiming victory over No. 19 Air Force Academy and losing to No. 10 San Jose State University.
The tournament ended with a strong win for Princeton against Biola University on Sunday.
In the first game of the tournament against Santa Clara (11–11 overall, 1–3 WCC), the Tigers came away with an exciting 12–11 win. Junior attacker Keller Maloney led the Tigers with four goals while senior utility player Mitchell Cooper, junior utility player Joan Coloma, and sophomore center George Caras scored two goals apiece. Senior center Wyatt Benson and junior attacker Yurian Quinones added one goal each. Caras scored the game-winning point with only nine seconds left on the clock, assisted by first-year utility player Roko Pozaric. Junior goalie Antonio Knez made eight saves to fight off the Broncos, helping the Tigers to a solid weekend opener.
The Tigers started strong on the second day of the tournament, first winning 11–10 against Air Force (17–6 overall, 5–2 MWC). The Falcons maintained a three-point lead against Princeton going into the fourth quarter but Pozaric, assisted by Maloney, found the cage at the start of the period, bringing the tally to 7–9. Neither team was able to score subsequent goals until Maloney dented the twine 36 seconds before the end of the quarter. Pozaric then managed to slip a goal past the Falcons with just one second left on the clock to tie the game at nine and bring about the first of two overtime periods, each three minutes in length. Air Force scored in the first overtime but Princeton answered in the second with a goal from Benson, evening the tally at 10. In U.S. collegiate water polo, the winner after the two three-minute overtime periods is determined by sudden victory; 30 seconds into the seventh overtime, the Tigers were able to secure the win with Coloma scoring the final goal.
In the second matchup of the day, Princeton stayed close to San Jose State (14–12 overall, 1–2 GCC) but ultimately lost 7–11. The Tigers had a 6–5 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Spartans quickly tied the game and then went on a shooting streak, firing three more shots to the back of the cage until junior utility player Ryan Neapole scored for Princeton with 15 seconds left on the clock. The Spartans responded with two more goals before the end of the period to come away with the win. First-year driver Vladan Mitrovic and Maloney scored three and two goals, respectively, for the Tigers. Pozaric and Neapole added one point each to the scoreboard.
When asked about the tournament in an interview with The Daily Princetonian, junior attacker Nick Hovsmith explained how he believes the games will impact future play.
“In California, we faced a number of challenging teams,” Hovsmith said. “However, this adversity gave us a substantial opportunity to improve and adapt on the road which will help us going into next week's away conference games against Harvard and Brown.”
In the last game of the tournament against Biola (1–18 overall, 0–7 WWPA), Princeton demonstrated its strong offense, leading the game 9–1 going into halftime. The Tigers extended their lead to nearly 10 points by the end of the fourth quarter, finishing the game at 15–5. Senior goalie Billy Motherway contributed seven saves.
“With six games in seven days, it was definitely a long week,” Hovsmith said. “Although a few got away from us, I'm proud of how we performed as a group. Going into the postseason, I'm really excited to see how we perform.”
“Water polo is a tough sport. Nothing is given and everything must be earned. If we continue to put in the work, I have no doubt we'll get the results we are looking for,” he added.
Princeton will face conference opponents Harvard (20–3 overall, 4–1 NWPC) and MIT (7–11 overall, 1–4 NWPC) this Saturday in Cambridge, Mass. and Brown (14–11 overall, 2–2 NWPC) on Sunday in Providence, R.I. The Tigers look to outperform Harvard after a disappointing loss to the Crimson earlier in the month.
Lizzie Evanko is a contributor in the sports section. She can be reached at eevanko@princeton.edu.
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