Nov. 3, 2012

LEWISBURG, Pa. - The No. 14 Navy water polo team came up short in its bid to defend its CWPA Southern Division title as it fell to No. 17 Bucknell, 13-11, in the semifinals on Saturday. The Bison broke a 9-9 tie late in the third quarter and never trailed the rest of the way.

"Bucknell was the better team today and the win was well earned," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "They obviously learned more from our two regular season games than we did. They exposed all of our warts and we got away from some of the things we wanted to do, and paid the price."

Senior Archie Warren led Navy (22-3) with four goals, while Paul Pedrotty and Erich Schwamb both chipped a pair.

With the game tied 2-2 early on, Bucknell scored three of the next four goals to take a 5-3 at the end of the first quarter. Consecutive goals from Pedrotty and Warren knotted the game with 3:35 to play in the half and then Navy grabbed its second lead of the day, 6-5, with 0:52 to play on a goal by Tyler Thein.

The game stayed tight early in the third with neither team able to create any separation. The third quarter saw four ties (6-6, 7-7, 8-8 and 9-9) before the Bison grabbed a 10-9 advantage with 2:17 to play in the frame on a goal by Mike Kimble.

A pair of quick Bucknell (14-13) goals to start the fourth quarter gave the Bison its largest lead of the game at 12-9. Goals by Warren and Schwamb pulled Navy to within one, 12-11, with 2:19 to play. But that was as close as Navy would get as Bucknell's Brian Barron added an insurance marker with 1:18 remaining to seal the 13-11 victory.

Barron led all scorers with six goals.

"We'll take no comfort in this, but the three top seeds all got beat this weekend," said Schofield. "As a result, we'll play Princeton tomorrow for the seventh seed at Easterns."

Tomorrow's consolation game against Princeton will begin at 12:45 p.m.