Nov. 11, 2006
PRINCETON, N.J. - The Navy water polo team recorded a pair of victories Saturday to advance to Sunday's title game of the CWPA Eastern Tournament for the sixth time in the last seven years. Navy, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, will face tournament-host Princeton in Sunday's 1:30 p.m. title game. The Tigers advanced by upsetting top-seeded St. Francis (N.Y.) in overtime in the semifinals.
The winner of Sunday's game receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Championship.
The Mids defeated MIT by a score of 13-7 in the quarterfinal round, then held off Bucknell 11-8 in Saturday night's semifinal game.
"Our match tonight wasn't our best, but hopefully we have saved our best for last," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield.
After the Mids and the Bison ended the first period tied at 3-3, Navy slowly gave itself some breathing room by outscoring the Bison by one goal in each of the remaining three periods. Navy held a 5-4 lead at the half and took an 8-6 advantage heading into the final quarter.
Mike Mulvey (So., Carlsbad, Calif.) scored a trio of goals in the semifinal game to lead the Navy offense, while George Naughton (Jr., Deerfield Beach, Fla.) tallied 12 saves and a steal in goal for the Mids.
Also posting two goals in the game for Navy were Bram Arnold (Jr., Lemoore, Calif.) and Aaron Recko (Jr., San Antonio, Texas).
Navy advanced to the semifinal game by posting a 13-7 victory over MIT Saturday afternoon.
"We started kind of slow in the game, but we soon got our defense doing what we needed it to do," said Schofield.
After holding a slim 3-2 after the first period, the Mids outscored the Engineers 7-0 in the second period to take a 10-2 lead at intermission.
Mulvey and Recko both tallied three goals in the game, while Arnold and Kevin Bell (Fr., Naperville, Ill.) each scored a pair of goals for Navy.
Navy and Princeton have faced each other four times this year, with the Mids winning all four previous games by a total of just seven goals.
A video stream of Sunday's game can be seen on www.goprinceton.com(.)
CWPA All-Southern Division Team
George Naughton, Tyler Hill (Jr., Houston, Texas) and Aaron Recko all were named First-Team All-CWPA Southern Division, with Recko also tabbed as the division's MVP, it was announced Friday night at the league awards dinner.
