BALTIMORE â€" The Navy water polo team lost its Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference season opener on Friday night on the road to Johns Hopkins, 14-8. The Mids (5-4, 0-1 MAWPC) fell behind early by three goals in the first quarter and were unable to come back against the Blue Jays (1-7, 1-0 MAWPC) in their home pool in Baltimore. Taylor Peterson (Sr., Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.), Matt Skowronski (Jr., Oak Hill, Va.) and Nik Galvan (Fr., Henderson, Nev.) all recorded two goals for Navy in the setback.

The action began with Johns Hopkins jumping out to a 2-0 lead over the opening 2:58 of play in the first quarter. Galvan got the Mids on the scoreboard first at 4:33. Back-to-back markers by the Blue Jays within 39 seconds of each other down the stretch made it a 4-1 margin before Galvan tickled the twine with eight seconds remaining in the period.

In the second quarter, the play went back-and-forth as the teams traded the first four goals. Peterson notched both the Mids' markers during this span to make it 6-4. Three straight Blue Jays goals over the next 3:21 broke the game open to a 9-4 margin. A late score by Skowronski with eight seconds to go in the half made it 9-5.

After J.B. Lee (Jr., Newport Coast, Calif.) registered a tally 32 seconds into the third quarter made it 9-6, the second half saw the host team pull away and never let the Mids get within six goals. From 6:40 to 4:13, the Blue Jays rattled off four unanswered goals. Shepherd Warren (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) scored Navy's final goal of the quarter to make it 13-7.

During the last eight minutes of play, both offenses were slowed down substantially with only one goal each. Skowronski's second marker of the game at 1:33 closed the scoring at 14-8.

In goal, Ronan Williams (Fr., Severna Park, Md.) was credited with nine saves.

"We seemed to have had more trouble adjusting to shallow-deep narrow pool this time around," remarked head coach Mladen Stanicic. "A loud prime time crowd didn't help our focus either.

"We'll have to look at the video for a better analysis, but I think I could safely say that Nik Galvan was a bright spot for us with his offensive output."

The Mids will be back in action on Saturday with the second of its four MAWPC matches this weekend. Navy will host Bucknell at Scott Natatorium at 8 p.m.