LEWISBURG, Pa. â€" In the final day of action at the CWPA Southern Championship tournament, the fourth-seeded Navy water polo team outlasted Bucknell, the second-seed, and secured third place with a 15-13 overtime victory. In an exciting back-and-forth game that saw four different runs of three or more unanswered goals and seven ties, the Mids used a career-best outing from Carpenter Warren (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) to lead the way to victory and a top-six seed into the CWPA Championship tournament, later this month.

Warren led a consolidated Navy offensive effort that saw just six Mids score goals versus Bucknell. The senior sniper challenged Brian Wineke's 22-year old record for most goals and points in a game with eight goals and two assists for a 10-point result against the Bison on Sunday. Wineke's program record came in 1993 versus Slippery Rock with nine goals and 11 combined points. Carl Dowzicky (Sr., Collegeville, Pa.) and David Huber (Jr., Fort Washington, Pa.) aided Warren with two scores each. In goal, Beau Bayless (Sr., Carmel, Calif.) was strong with 11 saves and two steals in 38 minutes of action.

"What a huge win," exclaimed head coach Mladen Stanicic. "We succeeded in finishing top-three and that puts us in much better position for the CWPA Championship. Carpenter and Carl had incredible games, as did Beau in goal. Both teams had players in foul trouble and consequently we got some good minutes from the bench."

Within minutes of the start of the game, the fans at Kinney Natatorium on the campus of Bucknell knew that they'd be in for an exciting battle as Navy quickly turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead only to see Bucknell fight back and tighten it to a 4-3 margin in favor of the Mids at the end of the first quarter. Robert Sutherland (Sr., Denton, Texas) was the first goal scorer for Navy before Steven Emde (Sr., Ballwin, Mo.) converted a 6-on-5 situation for the Mids coming out of a timeout. Warren netted the final two scores for Navy down the stretch to help the fourth-seeded squad take a one-goal lead.

Bucknell re-took the lead 69 seconds into the second quarter with a pair of goals early on. On his second five-meter attempt and conversion of the game, Warren tied the game at 5-5 at the 6:17 mark of the period. A trading of goals at 4:48 and 4:13 moved the scoring up to 6-6. Dowzicky notched the marker for the Mids. The host Bison took a 7-6 lead into halftime courtesy of a score at 3:54.

Bucknell extended its advantage out to a three-goal margin with the first two goals of the third quarter. In a storyline that played out throughout the game on Sunday, the Mids fought back with strong conversion numbers in 6-on-5 situations. In a span of 95 seconds between 2:02 and 0:27, Warren recorded three man-up goals to even the score at 9-9 before the conclusion of the period.

In a wide-open fourth quarter the see-saw action continued as on three separate occasions the two teams were tied; 10-10, 11-11 and 13-13. Navy scored the go-ahead goals in all three situations as Jared Castillo (So., League City, Texas) put the Mids up 10-9 before Huber gave Navy another lead at 11-10. After Huber and Warren found the back of the net in power play situations at 4:38 and 3:50 to build the Mids' advantage out to 13-11, the Bison fought back with two goals in the final 1:59 of regulation to tie the game for the seventh time.

With the score 13-13, Navy dominated the six minutes of overtime including three forced turnovers on the first three possessions for Bucknell. Warren completed his eight-goal effort with a score at 2:26 of the first period. In the second overtime stanza, Warren found Dowzicky with a long cross-pool pass for a one-timer shot from distance with 28 seconds remaining.

As a result of its third place standing in the tournament, Navy will be seeded sixth in the upcoming CWPA Championship tournament that is slated for Nov. 20-22 at MIT. By finishing third, the Mids have now earned a top-three placement in 21 of the 22 years that the CWPA Southern Championships have been held.

Navy will next be in action on Friday, Nov. 20 at MIT's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Pool with a first round matchup at 12:40 p.m. versus an opponent yet to be determined.