ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 17 Navy water polo team (5-0) hits the road for the annual Princeton Invitational this weekend at DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, N.J. The Midshipmen will be put to the test as they face a tough schedule that includes a pair of top 10 opponents.
On Saturday, the Mids will take on No. 6 Princeton (3-0) and Iona (1-1) at 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively, before concluding the tournament on Sunday with No. 7 Pacific (2-0) at 10:30 a.m.
Navy's game against Princeton will be broadcast on
ESPN+.
Social Media
For more information on Navy water polo, follow the team on Instagram (
@NavyWaterPolo), X / Twitter (
@NavyWaterPolo), and Facebook (
@NavyWaterPolo).
Milestone Watch
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. Following a 5-0 performance at the Navy Open, Nicolao is now just three wins back of the 500-win plateau for his career and five victories shy of 100 wins at Navy. Nicolao, who spent 20 years as the head coach of Princeton, has a chance to earn his monumental 500th win where he started his coaching career.
Navy Sports Magazine
Junior utility player
Holden Seybold sat down with the Voice of Navy Athletics Pete Medhurst to discuss the Midshipmen's 5-0 start, the Princeton Invitational, and more in this week's edition of the Navy Sports Magazine.
VIDEO
National Ranking
The Midshipmen enter the weekend ranked 17th in the Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll. Additionally, the Mids started the year in 18th according to the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. Navy closed out the 2023 season ranked in the final CWPA national rankings, coming in at No. 17. The Midshipmen were ranked each week of the year, starting during the preseason poll. Additionally, the Mids were ranked 17th in the final ACWPC poll. This weekend the Midshipmen will face a pair of teams ranked in the CWPA top 10 in No. 6 Princeton and No. 7 Pacific.
Navy Open Review
The Midshipmen began the 2024 campaign with a 5-0 showing at the Navy Open last weekend at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. The Mids tallied 89 goals (17.8 goals/game) in five games, while holding their opponents to single digits in each contest and an 8.2 goals/game average.
Kiefer Black picked up where he left off from his All-American campaign last season as a freshman, leading the team with 16 goals in the five games (3.2 goals/game). The sophomore scored multiple goals in each game with three hat tricks.
Black was joined by
Luka Sekulic who also notched double digit goals at the Navy Open, finishing with 11.
Michael Heller added nine scores with
Maddox Garrahy and
Billy Zech rounding out the top five performers with eight and seven goals, respectively.
Navy used four goalies over the weekend, including freshmen
Jack Rodoni and
Ryan Munch. The pair of rookies combined for 29 stops four combined games between the posts. Rodoni led the team with 17 saves in two games, while Munch added a dozen stops in his two contests.
Up Next
Following the Princeton Invitational, the Midshipmen head to Colorado for the Rare Air Challenge hosted by Air Force on Friday, Sept. 20 through Sunday, Sept. 22. Navy will take on its service academy counterpart Air Force (Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET), while also squaring off against Concordia (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET), No. 15 Harvard (Saturday, 8:00 p.m. ET), Biola (Sunday, 12:00 p.m. ET), and Cal Lutheran (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET).
