Sept. 15, 2007
BERKELEY, Calif. -- The 10th-ranked Navy water polo team dropped a pair of hard-fought decisions on day one of the NorCal Tournament on Saturday, falling to fifth-ranked UC Irvine, 13-12, and No. 16 Pacific, 15-11. The losses send Navy into the 13-16th place games on Sunday and drops Navy's record to 6-4 overall.
In the first game, a tight 13-12 loss to UC Irvine, Bram Arnold, Mike Mulvey and Reed MacKenzie led Navy with three goals each, while Andrew Bingham, John Connors and Kevin Bell scored once. George Naughton recorded 10 saves and three steals in goal.
"We did a lot of good things against UC Irvine, one of the best teams in the country. We competed very hard against them," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "But we gave up too many goals and made too many mistakes in the end. We aren't good enough yet to overcome some of the mistakes we make."
In the second game, Navy led 5-3 after one quarter, but Pacific outscored Navy, 12-6, the rest of the way and the Mids were dealt a 15-11 setback. Bingham scored four times, Mulvey added three, Chuck Baker scored two goals and Arnold and Aaron Recko scored a goal each. Naughton made nine saves in goal for Navy.
"Our problems against UC Irvine were about tripled against Pacific," said Schofield. "Our hat goes off to them. They made the right adjustments and beat us at our own game. They did a great job coutering off our mistakes."
Navy will play UC Santa Cruz at 8:00 am on Sunday.
# GO NAVY #
