View From the East: Princeton Emerges as Region’s Best
With the NCAA play-in game contested last Saturday at Princeton’s DeNunzio Pool, men’s 2021 varsity water polo competition in the East is now concluded. The Tigers—tied for 11th in the most recent Collegiate Water Polo Association men’s varsity poll—proved they were the region’s best, topping #17 Fordham 17-8 to advance to today’s quarterfinals of the 2021 men’s national championship.
[No. 10 Princeton University Manages No. 16 Fordham University, 17-8, In National Collegiate Athletic Association Opening Round]
Waiting for Princeton in the West is #1 (T) UCLA. The Bruins are coming off a run to the 2021 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) title, with wins over Penn State, arch-rival USC (tied for the #1 spot) and an 11-10 finals victory over #4 Stanford, giving Head Coach Adam Wright’s team its first MPSF title since 2015. UCLA will play host to this year’s NCAA championship, a significant advantage. The Bruins seek a 13th national title, second only to Cal’s 14.
The Tigers have never beaten the Bruins in 15 attempts. They came closest in 2004 in the semifinals of the NCAA Men’s Tournament, which they hosted, pushing UCLA to overtime before falling 7-5. Things will likely not be different this year; the last meeting between the two teams—in 2019—was a 14-5 Bruin victory.
[Watch Princeton vs. UCLA today @ 3 p.m. PST / 6 p.m. EST link is here]
With a 26-7 record (8-2 NWPC) and wins over nine programs ranked in the Top Twenty, Head Coach Dustin Litvak’s team is fully deserving of the honor of representing the East out West. His line-up is stacked with notable newcomers and experienced performers. Roko Pozaric (66 goals, 41 assists, 40 steals) was named 2021 NWPC Rookie of the Year. The freshman from Croatia won a remarkable 102 out of 110 sprints. He was also named First-Team All-Conference.
Tigers Triumphant! Photo: Nicole Maloney
Junior captain Keller Maloney (67 goals, 37 assists) was also named to the NCWP First-Team All-Conference. Litvak, in his third season at Princeton—and named the conference’s 2021 Coach of the Year—is able to choose between two excellent goalies for today: senior Billy Motherway (11-1; 136 saves) who started in the Fordham match, and junior Antonio Knez (14-6, 193 saves).
Surprises and disappointment abound
Perhaps this season’s most underrated Eastern squad—and perhaps the season’s most inspirational story—was Fordham. Picked with Navy to finish behind Bucknell, two-time defending Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC), the Rams (26-7; 11-1 MAWPC) started off hot, winning 14 of their first 17 matches. They were never headed, cruising to the program’s first-ever MAWPC title and with another program first. A week ago Saturday Fordham qualified for its first NCAA berth with a 9-6 win over Navy. The Rams came close in 1973 and 1974 but it took until the program’s 72nd year to get to the national tournament.
Ram’s head coach Brian Bacharach was recognized as 2021 MAWPC Coach of the Year. George Papanikolaou (68 goals, 64 assists)—one of Bacharach’s outstanding freshmen—was named the conference’s rookie of the year, while graduate student Hans Zdolsek (42 goals, 32 assists) was voted the conferences’ most outstanding player. Joining Papanikolaou and Zdolsek on the First Team All-MAWPC East roster were freshman Jacopo Parrella (51 goals, 62 assists, 43 steals) and senior Bailey O’Mara (177 saves, 8.43 goals against). O’Mara was a hard-luck case at season’s end. An injury kept him out of the Rams’ final nine matches.
[Special Delivery from Italy: Jacopo Parrella Leads Fordham Men’s Water Polo into the Postseason]
Another surprise was St. Francis Brooklyn (16-7; 6-3 NWPC). Pegged for fourth in the in the NWPC preseason coaches’ poll, the Terriers stunned defending NWPC champ Harvard twice—once in their bathtub four stories under the streets of Brooklyn Heights, and again in the semifinals of the NWPC Championship. They also beat Princeton and Fordham on their way to an impressive first season for rookie head coach Ilija Duretic. They finished #18 in the CWPA poll and also placed junior Aleksa Sisakovic on the NWPC All-Conference first team, and sophomore Adonis Vlassis on the all-conference second team.
Another over-achiever were the Seahawks of Wagner (17-17; 6-6 MAWPC). A lackluster regular season gave way to a surprising run in the MAWPC Championships, where Head Coach Ciaran Wolohan’s squad upset favored Bucknell in the quarterfinals before dropping a one-goal decision in overtime to Fordham in the semis before falling in the third-place match to George Washington. Wolohan got a wonderous performance from Oliver Fodor 121 goals—best in the East this season— which earned him a berth on the MAWPC All-Conference first team for the second straight season. The junior from Budapest now holds the single season scoring record in Seahawk program history with 208 goals.
[Historic Day For Oliver Fodor As Men’s Water Polo Falls To Fordham In Overtime]
Wagner’s Oliver Fodor saw this every game—and still got 121 goals. Photo: Wagner Athletics
Navy (16-13; 9-3 MAWPC), despite an up and down campaign that saw the Mids lose to DIII Claremont Mudd Scripts as well as service academy rival Air Force. Head Coach Luis Nicolao’s squad won seven of its last 10 matches in the regular season before beating Gannon and George Washington on the way to a MAWPC final for the first time since the conference was formed in 2016. Navy fell short of a title and NCAA berth. It’s now been 13 years since the Mids qualified for the national championship.
Disappointments abound as well
Bucknell and Harvard, the two participants in the 2019 NCAA play-in match, were nowhere to be found in either conference championship picture. The Bison (13-12; 6-6 MAWPC) were eliminated by the Seahawks in the quarterfinals, their earliest exist in postseason play since the conference was formed five seasons ago. Junior Andu Vlasceanu (31 goals) remained a key performer for Head Coach John McBride, as he was named to the MAWPC First Team for the third straight year.
The Crimson can only lament what happened in two matches against St. Francis. The first loss in Brooklyn Height can be explained away by the Terriers’ oppressive shallow/deep pool, which has bedeviled opponents for half a century. What is hard to comprehend is a veteran team that had beaten SFC by 15 goals two weeks earlier allowed their opponent to break out to a 3-0 lead—and then made critical mistakes late in the contest that led to the loss. These include a whiff by junior goalie Noah Hodge (239 saves), named to the NWPC All-Conference First Team for the third time, on the winning score by the St. Francis’ Vlassis, and Kaleb Archer’s miscue at the end of the match, sealing the win for the underdog Terriers.
The Crimson were then beaten by Ivy rival Brown in the NWPC third-place match, the program’s lowest-ever finish in NWPC Championship play.
Tough end for Crimson, goalie Noah Hodge, losing to Brown 15-13. Photo: Harvard Athletics
Despite the loss, Harvard Head Coach Ted Minnis has a lot to look forward to. Junior Alex Tsotadze (71 goals, 39 assists, 32 steals) was named 2021 NWPC Most Valuable Player and like Hodge was selected to the NWPC All-Conference First Team. Gabe Putnam (44 goals, 25 steals, 11 blocks), another junior, also made the cut as NWPC All-Conference First Team; all three will likely get right back to work putting the Crimson back on top in the East, a standing they’ve enjoyed for much of the past five seasons.
One program that truly is just happy to be here are the Mount of Mount St. Mary’s. After miraculously building out roster for both men’s AND women’s teams last year during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, MSM Head Coach Alyssa Diacono has to feel good about her first full season of MAWPC play.
[Five Questions with Alyssa Diacono, Mount St. Mary’s Head Coach]
On October 8 the Mount beat John’s Hopkins 15-14 for the program’s first (and currently, only) conference win. Notable this season was the play of sophomore Jason O’Donnell, who set program records with 109 goals 99 steals. His performance earned O’Donnell a berth on the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference East Second Team. Also making a splash for the 7-24 (1-11 MAWPC) Mount was senior goalie Marko Krusko, who in his brief time in Emmitsburg helped keep his younger teammates in most games. Krusko and senior Eli Thalos were the only upperclassmen out of squad of 15 on Diacono’s roster.
Meaning, a year removed from losing a season to COVID-19 the future is bright for East Coast polo.