Bucknell Men’s Water Polo took on ranked opponents #15 Harvard, #19 Santa Clara and #6 Princeton at the Princeton Invitational. Despite being high-scoring games, the Bison came up short on all three, dropping their record to 2-4.

The Orange and Blue started the weekend against Harvard. After the first period, the Bison only trailed 4-3. The Crimson held onto the lead, pushing it to 8-5 at the half and then 13-7 in the third. 

Aleksa Stefanovic ’26 led the offense with four goals, Matt Ryckman ’25 wasn’t far behind him with three of his own, and Jovan Udovicic ’28 added two. David Dumitru ’27 was in goal and finished the game with 11 saves. The game ended 16-12, with Harvard on top.

Game two was against Santa Clara. The Bison trailed for most of the game and were unsuccessful in stealing the lead. Tyler Hedblad ’28 put on a show with a career-high of seven goals. Stefanovic, Hasan Mogultay ’25 and Shay Gillearn ’25 also contributed to the score with two goals each. Dumitru finished with six saves. The game ended 20-16, marking Bucknell’s second loss of the day.

In the final game of the weekend, the Bison faced Princeton. They came out stronger than the day before, establishing a 1-1 tie at the end of the first quarter from a Hedblad goal. The defense held off its opponent from scoring until the final three minutes of the quarter. 

The final score was 17-7 in favor of Princeton. Goals came from five different players: Hedblad and Udovicic each added two, while Sean Tunnicliff ’27, Stefanovic and Jack Murad ’26 each added one. Mateo Herrera ’26 finished the day with eight saves in goal.

The Bison look to improve their record on Friday, Sept. 20, as they host the Bucknell Invitational, beginning with a game against Mount St. Mary’s at 6 p.m.