Nov. 8, 2009

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The 12th-ranked Navy water polo team pieced together perhaps its best performance of the season, topping Princeton in the CWPA Southern Division Championship game on Sunday afternoon, 10-5. The win was Navy's ninth in a row and pushes the Mids' record to 20-8 overall.

The tournament title was Navy's 12th in the 17-year history of the CWPA Southern Division Championship. Navy has won four of the last five tournament titles dating back to 2005 and is now 52-5 all-time in Southern Division Championship play. Navy finished second the five other times.

The Mids have also now won at least 20 games in five straight seasons and in 16 of the last 17 seasons.

"We cleaned up a lot of things today on both ends and had one of our best efforts of the season," said assistant coach Mladen Stanicic. "The offense was very sharp and had a great shooting percentage."

Navy opened the game with a 3-2 lead after the first quarter, then slowly expanded the lead as the game went on. The Mids led 5-3 at halftime and 8-4 after three quarters before cruising home for the 10-5 victory.

Kyle Wertz continued his strong late-season run, converting on all five of his shot attempts for a team-best five goals. Wertz scored 12 goals in the three games, including 11 in the last two, giving him a career-best 49 goals on the season and leaving him with 97 in his brief two-year career.

Stevie Ray, who now has 47 goals on the season, scored twice on four attempts and Jordan Carter converted both of his shot attempts for two goals. Johnny Meiners rounded out the scoring with one goal.

Navy will likely earn the top seed for the CWPA Eastern Championship, beginning on Nov. 20, in Cambridge, Mass., hosted by MIT. Navy will be looking to become just the third program in Eastern Championship history to win four straight Eastern titles.

# GO NAVY #