By Chris McCree

Writer

The men’s water polo team upset host No. 15 Navy en route to a second-place finish at the Southern Championships in Annapolis, Md. this past weekend. Coming into the tournament as the fourth seed, the Bison advanced to the championship game but fell to No. 17 Princeton by two goals in the finals.

After an 11-7 victory over Mercyhurst in the first round earlier in the day, the Orange and Blue took down Navy 13-12 on Saturday for one of their most significant victories of the season. Coming into the tournament, the Bison had lost to Navy twice this season. The two teams were tied at halftime and close for the entire game, but with just over five minutes left to play, Howie Kalter ’11 sealed the victory for the Bison with his fifth goal of the game. The loss was a shocking blow for Navy, who previously had an all-time tournament record of 53-5 and had never lost to the Bison in the Southern Championships.

Overall, the team looked at the victory as the result of a combined effort by everyone involved.

“We did well because we made an effort to work for each other. For both our offense and defense, there was a lot of communication and we were able to stick with and effectively run our game plan. Everybody was enthusiastic when somebody stepped up and scored; it created a good atmosphere,” Paul Reamey ’11 said.

“We were able to prevent our opponent’s counterattack and forced them to take outside shots that our goalies could easily block,” Brian Barron ’13 said.

The Orange and Blue took their momentum into the final matchup against Princeton, but fell to the Tigers 8-6 after leading by two at the half. The Bison offense stalled in the second half of the game as they only scored twice in the third quarter and had no goals in the fourth. Barron was the team’s only multi-goal scorer with two goals.

The senior class propelled the Bison to win two out of their three contests as Richie Hyden ’11, Kalter, Reamey and Sean Coghlan ’11 combined to score 18 of the team’s 30 goals. Goalkeeper Miles Gilhuly ’11 was another significant contributor to the Bison success as he registered 19 saves over the three-game stretch.

In the end, the team’s second-place finish was not only historically important because it was the program’s best-ever performance at this event, but also because it qualified the Bison to play in the Eastern Championships, which the team will host the third weekend in November.

“To prepare for Eastern Championships, we just need to remember what has made us successful in the past, and each person needs keep working to make the other guys on the team better,” Reamey said.