Sept. 17, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The 11th-ranked Navy water polo team finished 10th in the NorCal Open with an impressive 14-9 win over 12th-ranked UC-Irvine on Sunday afternoon and a 14-11 loss to 10th-ranked UC-Santa Barbara. The win was Navy's first ever against UC-Irvine since the program was reinstated in the early 1980s.
"We had a great effort in the first game today. The score wasn't as close as 14-9 sounded," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "This was a huge win for us confidence wise, and its a good accomplishment for us to beat them for the first time ever. They are a little down this year, but they are still one of the top teams in the country."
Navy controlled most of the game, jumping out early and scoring often. Aaron Recko led the Mids with five goals, while Tyler Hill added three goals. Bram Arnold and Michael Mulvey tallied two goals, while Andrew Plumb and Eric Gardiner scored once. George Naughton saw the majority of time in goal, making 10 saves, while allowing six goals. Steve Craney allowed three goals and made two saves.
Navy went 3-of-6 on extra-man chances, while UC-Irvine was 4-of-11. It was an area that Schofield wanted to see improvement in after Saturday's games.
In the ninth-place match, Navy fell behind 4-0 early, but rallied to tie the game at eight early in the third quarter. However, Navy had a few penalty shots go against them, and dropped the ninth-place game, 14-11.
"We played hard, but made some critical mistakes that led them to goals," said Schofield. "The good thing is they are correctable mistakes. It was an encouraging day for us."
Arnold led Navy against UC-Santa Barbara with four goals. Hill had three, Reed McKenzie had two and Mulvey and Recko tallied one each.
Schofield was extremely pleased with the weekend.
"It was a great trip for us," said Schofield. "We played hard all weekend and were very competitive. The football game was great on Saturday night and I could tell that we were very proud of the football team and we were proud to represent Navy this weekend. We are encouraged with what went on out here this weekend and it will help us later in the year."
Navy, now 8-4 on the season, will compete in the ECAC Championships next weekend in Providence.
# GO NAVY #
