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Box Score 2 LA JOLLA, Calif. – The No. 20 Navy water polo team (3-1) split a pair of games on the final day of the Triton Invitational on the campus of UC San Diego. The Midshipmen opened the day with a 10-9 upset victory over No. 9 Long Beach State (2-1) before dropping their final game of tournament, 15-8, to No. 11 UC San Diego.
"It was a great opening weekend for us," head coach
Luis Nicolao stated. "The guys played hard and earned an exciting victory over a top-10 opponent. We fell a little short against UC San Diego, but overall, I am extremely happy with how we played this weekend."
Nine Midshipmen scored at least one goal on the day with five notching multi-goal performances.
Kiefer Black once again led the team, finishing the day with a team-high nine points on three goals and a team-best six assists.
Hayden Kahn led the team with four goals on the day, including the game-winning goal against No. 9 Long Beach State.
Nathan Duchez chipped in three goals, while
Sam Collingwood and
Tommy McKnew finished with two goals apiece.
Michael Heller,
Merle Richman,
Holden Seybold, and
Kyle Yelensky rounded out the scoring.
Connor Cashman and
Aiden Day joined Black with multiple assists on the day, while
Ivan Pang and Duchez also chipped in helpers.
At goal,
Caden Capobianco and
Jack Hightower split time between the posts. Capobianco worked a game and a half, including a complete game effort against the Beach, while Hightower entered the game in the second half against the nationally-ranked Tritons. Capobianco finished with a season-best 13 stops in the upset victory over No. 9 Long Beach State. The duo combined for 10 stops and four steals against No. 11 UC San Diego.
"I want to thank UC San Diego for having us out here," Nicolao added. "The tournament was a great experience for our team and a lot of the parents were able to attend. Hopefully we will be able to make it out again in the future."
Monday the Midshipmen make the trip from San Diego to Coronado to take on back-to-back defending national champion Cal (4-0). The opening sprint is slated for 12:00 p.m. (ET).
Game 1 Recap: #20 Navy 10, #9 Long Beach State 9
Tied 9-9 with under 10 seconds to play,
Hayden Kahn took a pass from
Kiefer Black and buried it in the back of the net to lift Navy to a 10-9 victory over No. 9 Long Beach State.
Capobianco finished the game with 13 saves, while four Mids – Kahn, Black, Duchez, and McKnew – registered two goals apiece.
Long Beach State opened the scoring with a pair of goals, but scores by Duchez and
Merle Richman knotted the score at 2-2 through one quarter of play.
Black gave the Mids the lead a minute into the second quarter. McKnew followed with a score to push the advantage to 4-2. Duchez extended the lead to three with his second goal of the first half. The Beach responded with back-to-back goals to trim the margin to one, but Black closed the half with a goal to go into intermission with Navy in front, 6-4.
In the third quarter, Heller extended the advantage back to three, 7-4, but three straight goals by Long Beach State tied the game at 7-7 with two and a half minutes to play in the quarter. With just over a minute remaining in the third quarter, Kahn broke the seven all tie with his first goal of the game.
The Beach tied the game at 8-8, but McKnew gave the Mids a 9-8 advantage with five and a half minutes remaining in regulation. The score remained in Navy's favor until Long Beach State netted the equalizer with 40 ticks remaining on the clock, setting up Kahn's game-winning goal in the closing seconds of the game.
Game 2 Recap: #11 UC San Diego 15, #20 Navy 8
Navy dropped to 3-1 on the season, talking to No. 11 UC San Diego, 15-8 in the Mids' final game of the Triton Invitational. Kahn and Collingwood led the way with two goals apiece, while Black added a pair of assists to go along with a goal to pace the squad with three total points.
The game started with a pair of scores by tournament-host UC San Diego. Black put the Mids on the scoreboard denting the back of the net with his seventh goal of the weekend. The Tritons closed out the first quarter with two more scores to lead 4-1.
In the second quarter, the home team added two more scores before Seybold ended the US San Diego run. Back-to-back scores by the Tritons extended the advantage to 8-2. Collingwood and Kahn netted goals around a UC San Diego score to go into halftime trailing 9-4.
Collingwood and Kahn once again netted goals around a Triton score to start the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 10-6. UC San Diego used a 4-0 run to end the quarter and take a 14-6 lead into the final period. In the fourth, Duchez and Yelensky chipped in goals for the Midshipmen to provide the final margin of 15-8.
