ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 20 Navy water polo team (18-9, 8-4 in the MAWPC) concludes play in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference with a pair of league games over the weekend. The Midshipmen open the weekend at home against No. 20 George Washington (14-7, 10-2 in the MAWPC) at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9. Later that afternoon at 3:00 p.m., the Mids play their regular season finale against Johns Hopkins (11-19, 3-9 in the MAWPC).
Both games will be broadcast on the
Navy Athletics YouTube Channel and take place in Lejeune Hall.
Saturday afternoon's game against the Blue Jays will serve as Senior Day for the Midshipmen. Navy will honor its five seniors –
Michael Heller, team captain
Liam McInerney,
Tommy McKnew,
Sean O'Boyle, and
Henry Williams – for their contribution to the Navy water polo program.
Social Media
For more information on Navy water polo, follow the team on Instagram (
@NavyWaterPolo), X / Twitter (
@NavyWaterPolo), and Facebook (
@NavyWaterPolo).
National Ranking
After a week of receiving votes, the Midshipmen returned to the national rankings, entering the weekend tied at No. 20 in the latest Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll. Saturday morning's opponent George Washington is currently tied with the Midshipmen at No. 20 in the polls.
Including the preseason poll, Navy has been ranked in nine of 10 weeks of the 2024 season. The Mids have risen as high as 17 in the poll. The Midshipmen were ranked each week of the year in 2023, starting during the preseason poll, closing out the season at No. 17.
Scouting the Midshipmen
Navy enters the weekend 18-9 overall and 8-4 in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference following a 2-1 showing last weekend. The Midshipmen fell to No. 2 Fordham (L, 18-10) before posting back-to-back victories against Wagner (W, 17-11) and Johns Hopkins (W, 16-8).
Kiefer Black leads the team, entering the weekend with 142 points on 79 goals and 63 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 11th in program history with 267 total points on 147 goals and 120 assists. He is 14 points back of David Kaye ('86), who finished his career with 281 points, for 10th; 17 points back of Isaac Salinas ('22) for ninth with 284 points; and 20 points behind Alex Ratcliffe ('06) for eighth with 287 points. Additionally, he is the sixth player in program history with 100 or more helpers, entering the weekend in second place with 120. He is 19 assists back of Tom Popp ('89) who holds the school record with 139.
Michael Heller,
Luka Sekulic,
Orion Erwin, and
Quinn Bartlett follow Black to round out Navy's top five. Heller has 57 points on 45 goals and 12 assists, while Sekulic is three points back with 54 points on 43 goals and 11 assists. Erwin has 53 points on 30 scores and 23 helpers, while Bartlett is relatively balanced with 28 goals and 23 assists for 51 points.
Billy Zech follows with 33 goals, while
Maddox Garrahy adds 30 scores and
Holden Seybold (26 goals) rounds out Navy's 20-goal scorers.
Matt Mai-Prasarnsuk (19),
Henry Williams (18), and
Austin Kahn (15) close out the Mids' double-digit scorers.
Kahn is second on the team with 28 assists with Bartlett (23), Erwin (23),
Rory Begin (22), Williams (18), Mai-Prasarnsuk (13), Heller (12), Seybold (12), and Sekulic (11) chipping in double-digit helpers.
Defensively, Navy primarily used three goalkeepers on the year.
Ryan Munch leads the team with 122 saves, while
Jack Hightower and
Jack Rodoni follow with 62 and 58 stops, respectively. Seybold leads the team with 31 steals, while Mai-Prasarnsuk (29), Black (28), Erwin (21), Hightower (21), Kahn (21), Munch (20), and Sekulic (20) follow with 20-plus takeaways apiece. Garrahy (18), Bartlett (17), Heller (17), Williams (14), Zech (12), and Begin (11) round out Navy's double-digit steals.
Garrahy leads the team with 58 ejections drawn with Zech, Erwin, Bartlett, Black, and Heller following with 46, 39, 31, 22 and 22 kickouts drawn, correspondingly.
Scouting the Opponent
George Washington: The Revolutionaries enter the weekend 14-7 overall and 10-2 in the MAWPC. Last weekend, GW fell to No. 2 Fordham, 19-5, at home before posting an 8-7 overtime win against Wagner at home as part of Senior Day. Andrija Sekulic leads the Revolutionaries with 79 points on the year. He is second on the team with 49 goals, while leading the team with 30 assists. Adonis Vlassis has a team-high 60 scores with 14 assists to rank second on the squad with 74 points. Antonio Florena is third on the team with 60 points on 46 goals and 14 helpers. Luka Castorina leads the Revolutionaries with 239 saves and a 47.7 save percentage. George Washington faces Johns Hopkins on Friday night before taking on Navy on Saturday morning.
Johns Hopkins: The Blue Jays are 11-19 overall and 3-9 in the MAWPC. Last weekend, Johns Hopkins hosted three conference games, falling to Wagner (L, 15-9), No. 2 Fordham (L, 28-12), and Navy (L, 16-8). Hopkins has three players with more than 70 points on the year – Phillip Long (78 points), Andrew Lee (72), and Ian Raley (72). Lee leads the team with 61 goals, while Long and Raley follow with 49 and 47 scores, respectively. The Blue Jays have used a pair of goalkeepers throughout the year. Chris Poisler has registered a team-high 157 saves, while Kyle Pearson has 116 stops with a team-high 41.6 save percentage. Johns Hopkins faces No. 20 George Washington on Friday night before taking on Navy on Saturday afternoon.
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.
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 944 career wins between men's and women's programs (108 – Navy men; 402 – Princeton men; 434 – Princeton women) and is 58 victories away from the 1,000-win mark.
Up Next
The 2024 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship will be hosted by Navy at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md., on Friday-Sunday, November 22-24. The three-day, 12-game event to determine the league's champion and automatic qualifier for the 2024 NCAA Championship.
For fans attending the MAWPC Championship, ticket prices are $25 for a three-day tournament pass or $10 for a one-day pass. Navy students, faculty and staff with a valid college ID, and senior citizens 65 and older, will be admitted at discounted prices of $10 (tournament pass) and $5 (one-day pass). All children 12 and under are free of charge. All tickets are exclusively available at the door as there will be no presale in advance of the championship.
The tournament will be streamed on a pay-per-view basis on CWPATV.com. The cost of viewership is $10 per game, or $25 for the weekend tournament package that includes all the contested games. In addition, fans can access the stream until July following the conclusion of the tournament.
