No. 14 Princeton (21–9 overall, 9–1 NWPC) swept its three-game slate this past weekend, defeating No. 19 Brown (18–8, 5–5), MIT (7–18, 3–7), and No. 17 Harvard (19–9, 9–1), against whom Princeton narrowly lost earlier this year. Over the weekend, Princeton solidified itself as the top seed heading into the Northeast Water Polo Conference tournament, which is set to begin Nov. 21.
The Tigers went into Cambridge seeking revenge after an upset loss to the Crimson by one goal in early October. Though Harvard would keep the game close throughout, Princeton kept them at bay and came away with a 12–9 win.
First-year utility Otto Stothart put the Tigers on the board first, having the numbers advantage in an early power play. A deep shot from first-year attacker Taylor Bell gave the Tigers a 2–0 lead.
Princeton nearly shut out Harvard in the first quarter as the Crimson struggled to get their offense going early. Harvard did not score until 12 seconds left in the first.
“The last time we [played Harvard], we tried to defend them individually and they made us pay,” Head Coach Dustin Litvak wrote to The Daily Princetonian. “This time, it was much more of a collective effort to get stops on each possession.”
Three straight goals from the Tigers in the second frame put them up 5–1 with just under four minutes to go in the half, with contributions from both Bell and Stothart again. The Crimson would tack on two goals in the remaining minutes to pull back to a two-point deficit.
After finding himself one-on-one with Harvard’s goalie, sophomore attacker Enrique Nuño scored to seal a strong third quarter for the Tigers. With five goals in the quarter compared to the Crimson’s two, the Tigers entered the fourth up 10–6.
“We did a good job on offense of finding the extra pass, instead of settling for an individual solution,” Stothart wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “While we had a couple of defensive lapses, we didn’t let up on offense throughout the entire game.”
Though Harvard would pull within two goals in the fourth, a goal from senior utility Logan McCarroll would make the game 12–9.
With just two minutes left and desperate, Harvard went with an empty net to put on offensive pressure. However, junior goalie Kristóf Kovács and the Tigers would hold strong on defense. Kovács recorded 14 saves on the day to help keep Harvard at bay.
While the two teams split their two games this year and have the same conference record, the Tigers hold the goal differential, giving them the edge over the Crimson. Still, the Tigers needed wins over Brown and MIT on Saturday and Sunday respectively to clinch the No. 1 spot.
“The #1 seed in our tournament is very important,” Litvak said to the ‘Prince.’
In Saturday’s matchup against Brown, the two teams found themselves even at 12–12 entering the fourth quarter. The Tigers scored three straight goals at the start of the final quarter, helping send them past Brown, 18–15.
In the final game of the season on Sunday afternoon against MIT, Princeton clinched the NWPC tournament’s No. 1 seed with a win over the Engineers. In a strong team effort characterized by balanced scoring, 13 different Tigers scored a goal.
Litvak said the team will focus on fine tuning their game leading into the tournament to put themselves “in the best possible position to get back to the NCAA tournament.”
Jordan Halagao is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com
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