Nov. 20, 2009

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The 12th-ranked and top-seeded Navy water polo team breezed past Iona, 15-11, in the quarterfinals of the CWPA Eastern Tournament. The win improves Navy to 21-8 overall and was the Mids' 10th in a row.

Navy will face the winner of Fordham and Johns Hopkins on Saturday at 4:30 pm on he campus of MIT.

The Mids bolted out to a 3-0 lead after one quarter, then led 7-2 at halftime. Navy was comfortably ahead 12-5 after three quarters, before the Gaels outscored Navy, 6-3, in the fourth quarter to make the final score closer than it appeared.

Navy took a lead it would never give up just three minutes into the game as Johnny Meiners scored the first of his four goals to give Navy a 1-0 lead. Kyle Wertz, who also had four goals giving him 52 on the season, scored a pair of goals in the final 2:11 to push the lead to 3-0.

Iona cut the lead to 3-1 moments into the second quarter, but Wertz, Meiners and Conor Handley scored in a two-minute span to bump the lead to 6-1. The two teams then traded goals to end the half with Navy holding a 7-2 advantage.

Both Meiners and Wertz had hat tricks by the end of the first half.

After Iona cut the lead to 7-3, Navy blew the game open with four straight tallies to push the margin to 11-3. Wertz kicked off the run with his 100th career goal, followed by Meiners, Handley and Luke Baldwin goals.

Cort Jones scored Navy's next two goals and after Iona scored to cut the margin to 13-10, Matt Carlson and Robert Newman closed out Navy's scoring, and advance Navy into the semifinals.

Besides Wertz and Meiners with four goals each, Handley and Jones had a pair, and three other players scored one each.

Brett Rajchel and Dominic Valentini combined for 10 saves in goal.

Navy is looking for its fourth straight Eastern title.

# GO NAVY #