ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 20 Navy water polo team (14-7, 4-2 MAWPC) continues play in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference with three league games over the weekend. The Midshipmen open the weekend with a road game at George Washington (10-6, 6-1 MAWPC) on Friday, Oct. 25 at the Long Bridge Park Aquatics & Fitness Center in Arlington, Va. The Mids continue the weekend with a pair of home games in Lejeune Hall against Mount St. Mary's (5-21, 3-5 MAWPC) on Saturday, Oct. 26 and versus Bucknell (9-11, 5-3 MAWPC) on Sunday, Oct. 27.
Navy's two home matches will be broadcast on the
Navy Athletics YouTube Channel.
Social Media
For more information on Navy water polo, follow the team on Instagram (
@NavyWaterPolo), X / Twitter (
@NavyWaterPolo), and Facebook (
@NavyWaterPolo).
National Ranking
The Midshipmen enter the weekend ranked 20th with Friday's opponent George Washington and Sunday's opponent Bucknell both receiving votes in the latest Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll.
Including the preseason poll, Navy has been ranked all eight weeks of the 2024 season. The Mids have risen as high as 17 in the poll, but currently stand at No. 20. The Midshipmen were ranked each week of the year in 2023, starting during the preseason poll, closing out the season at No. 17.
Black Named to Cutino Award Watch List
For the third year, USA Water Polo and The Olympic Club are excited to collaborate with the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) on the Cutino Award Watch List. Navy sophomore
Kiefer Black was among the 20 student-athletes selected to the watch list.
The Peter J. Cutino Award, named in honor of the late Hall of Fame coach, recognizes the best player in men's and women's college water polo. This watch list was created in 2022 in an effort to help promote the college game, awareness of the honor, and the excellent play of athletes around the country.
Black becomes the second Midshipmen to be named to the watch list in the award's short tenure. Last season goalkeeper and team captain
Caden Capobianco ('24) was named to the Cutino Award Watch List.
Scouting the Midshipmen
Navy enters the weekend 14-7 overall and 4-2 in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference following a 2-2 weekend at the Brown / Harvard Invitational in Providence, R.I. The Midshipmen defeated Mercyhurst (W, 18-10) in a MAWPC game before being edged by No. 19 Brown (L, 10-9). The Mids defeated UC Merced (W, 17-14) before closing out the tournament against No. 13 San Jose State (L, 16-13).
Kiefer Black leads the team with a balanced attack, entering the weekend with 109 points on 59 goals and 50 assists. The sophomore has registered his second consecutive 100-point season, joining
Luis Nicolao (118 point in 1990; 114 in 1991) and Doug Munz (113 points in 1993; 184 points in 1994) as the only players in program history with multiple 100-point seasons. Last season, Black finished with 125 points, which ranked third in Navy's single-season records.
For his career, the sophomore is currently 14th in program history with 234 total points on 127 goals and 107 assists. He is six points back of Sean Foster ('01), who finished his career with 240 points, for 13th and 10 points behind Paul Pedrotty ('13) for 12th with 244 points. Additionally, he is the sixth player in program history with 100 or more helpers.
Michael Heller is second on the squad with 46 points, while
Quinn Bartlett and
Orion Erwin are tied with 44 points apiece. Heller is second on the team with 36 goals, adding 10 assists. Erwin has 26 goals and 18 helpers, while Bartlett is balanced with 23 scores and 21 assists.
Luka Sekulic is third on the team with 32 goals, chipping in eight helpers for 40 total points.
Maddox Garrahy and
Billy Zech are tied with Erwin with 26 points apiece, while
Holden Seybold (21) rounds out Navy's 20-goal scorers.
Matt Mai-Prasarnsuk (16),
Henry Williams (15), and
Austin Kahn (12) closes out the Mids' double-digit scorers.
Kahn is second on the team with 22 assists with Bartlett (21), Erwin (18),
Rory Begin (15), Williams (14), Mai-Prasarnsuk (12), and Heller (10) chipping in double-digit helpers.
Defensively, Navy primarily used three goalkeepers on the year.
Jack Hightower leads the team with 62 saves, while
Ryan Munch and
Jack Rodoni are close with 58 and 57 stops, respectively. Black leads the team with 24 steals, while Mai-Prasarnsuk (23), Hightower (21), and Seybold (21) follow with 20-plus takeaways apiece. Erwin (18), Bartlett (15), Kahn (15), Sekulic (15), Garrahy (14), Heller (14), Williams (12), and Zech (10) rounds out Navy's double-digit steals.
Garrahy leads the team with 46 ejections drawn with Zech, Erwin, and Bartlett following with 35, 31, and 25 kickouts drawn, correspondingly.
Scouting the Opponent
George Washington: The Revolutionaries enter the weekend 10-6 overall and 6-1 in the MAWPC. Last weekend, GW defeated Johns Hopkins, 14-12, in Baltimore for its sixth conference win of the year. Andrija Sekulic leads the Revolutionaries with 64 points on the year. He is tied with Antonio Florena with 35 goals, trailing only Adonis Vlassis who has a team-high 48 scores. Sekulic is the team-leader with 29 of the team's 84 assists.
Mount St. Mary's: The Mountaineers are 5-21 on the season with a 3-5 mark in the conference. Last weekend the Mount also took part in the Brown / Harvard Invitational. Mount St. Mary's fell to No. 19 Brown (L, 20-12) and defeated UC Merced (W, 15-11) in Providence, R.I., while falling to Salem (L, 25-17) and Chapman (L, 16-13) in Cambridge, Mass. Earlier this season, the Midshipmen posted a 21-7 victory over the Mount at the Navy Open during the first weekend of the season. The Mountaineers will take on Johns Hopkins in Baltimore prior to facing off against Navy.
Bucknell: The Bison are 9-11 overall and 5-3 in the MAWPC. Similar to the Mount and Navy, Bucknell also participated in the Brown / Harvard Invitational. The Bison went 1-3 in Cambridge, Mass., defeating LIU (W, 21-13) and falling to No. 13 San Jose State (L, 13-7), No. 11 Harvard (L, 19-17), and Salem (L, 13-12). Bucknell will take on George Washington and Johns Hopkins on Saturday before concluding the weekend with Navy on Sunday.
Milestone Man
Head coach
Luis Nicolao entered the 2024 season with 492 career wins as a men's head water polo coach, including 90 victories at Navy.
With Navy's win against Concordia, Nicolao recorded his 500th victory as a men's head coach, becoming the eighth coach to reach that mark, joining Ted Newland, former Navy head coach Mike Schofield, Denny Harper, Jovan Vavic, Terry Schroeder, Dante Dettamanti, and Pete Cutino with 500 or more wins.
Two games later, Nicolao reached another milestone, recording his 100th victory as the Navy head coach. He is officially the first coach in NCAA water polo history to lead multiple men's programs to 100 wins.
For his career, Nicolao has 940 career wins between men's and women's programs (104 – Navy men; 402 – Princeton men; 434 – Princeton women) and is 60 victories away from the 1,000-win mark.
Up Next
Following the three-game tilt, Navy is set for another trio of Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference games. The Mids host No. 5 Fordham (Saturday, Nov. 2 – 6:00 p.m.) and Wagner (Sunday, Nov. 3 – 10:00 a.m.) at Lejeune Hall before making the short trip to Baltimore to take on Johns Hopkins (Sunday, Nov. 3 – 3:00 p.m.) to close out the weekend. The Midshipmen's home games will be streamed on the Navy Athletics YouTube Channel.
