ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy water polo team (3-2) heads north to Princeton, N.J. for the weekend to take part in four games as part of the 2019 Princeton Invitational on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 14-15 at DeNunzio Pool. The Midshipmen will take on Iona (8:00 a.m.) and No. 19 Brown (2:15 p.m.) on Saturday, before closing out the tournament with No. 12 Harvard (8:00 a.m.) and Santa Clara (11:45 a.m.) on Sunday.
Princeton Invitational
Navy will once again participate in the annual Princeton Invitational. Navy head coach
Luis Nicolao spent 20 years at Princeton before becoming the Midshipmen's head coach prior to the 2018 season. In his first trip to the Princeton Invite as the head coach of the Mids, Navy finished the tournament 1-2, defeating Air Force (W, 11-9) and dropping a pair of games to ranked opponents – No. 9 Harvard (L, 16-9) and No. 4 Stanford (L, 21-4).
The Series
Navy is no stranger to the four teams it will play in the Princeton Invitational.
The Midshipmen hold a 49-0 all-time record against Iona. Navy has never lost to Iona, in a series that dates back to 1983. Earlier this year, the Mids defeated the Gaels, 18-9, in the final game of the Navy Open.
Navy holds a slight 27-21 overall record against Brown. The series started back in 1982, but the last meeting came in 2016 with the Bears earning a 16-8 victory. Brown has won the last two games in the series.
Navy and Harvard have met 34 times in the series, which dates back to 1983. The Mids have a 27-7 advantage, but the Crimson have won the last three meetings. The two teams met in the 2018 Princeton Invitational with No. 9 Harvard claiming a 16-9 victory.
Navy and Santa Clara are tied at 6-6 in the all-time series that dates back to 1994. After winning the first six games in the series, the Midshipmen have dropped a half a dozen consecutive games to the Broncos.
Scouting The Midshipmen
Isaac Salinas (Spring City, Pa.) leads the team with 13 goals on the season. Salinas was the only player on the team to record at least one goal in all four contests at the Navy Open, finishing with hat tricks in the final three games of the weekend.
Nate Reiff (Wheeling, Ill.) became the most recent Midshipmen to hit the 100 career point plateau. With four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in a 20-10 victory over Austin College, Reiff pushed his career numbers to 64 goals and 36 assists for 100 points.
Bobby Lee (Santa Ana, Calif.) is the active leader for Navy in career points with 108 (89g, 19a), while Salinas is the next closest to reaching the milestone with 90 career points (67g, 23a).
The opening weekend of competition, 24 of Navy's 28 position players recorded at least one goal, while 14 found the back of the net on multiple occasions.
Defensively,
Ronan Williams (Severna Park, Md.) and
Brandon Shields (Lake Forest, Calif.) led the way with 18 and 13 saves, respectively. Shields has spent time between the posts in all five games so far, while Williams has seen action in three contests.
Up Next
Following the Princeton Invitational, the Mids will play a trio of games on the road. The Midshipmen open the three-game road swing in Philadelphia, Pa., as Navy takes on La Salle in a Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference game on Friday, Sept. 20 at 5:00 p.m. The Mids return to Princeton, N.J. for a neutral site game with Wagner on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 2:00 p.m. as part of the MAWPC slate. Navy concludes the weekend with a nonconference game against Princeton at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.
