ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy water polo team (15-7, 7-1) return to Annapolis for a pair of games this weekend to start a five-game homestand to close out the home portion of the 2025 schedule. The Midshipmen will take on Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) opponent #20 George Washington (12-12, 5-2) on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. in Lejeune Hall before concluding the weekend with a nonconference contest against Iona (6-10) on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. at Scott Natatorium. The game against the Gaels will be broadcast on Navy Athletics YouTube.
Social Media
For more information on Navy water polo, follow the team on Instagram (
@NavyWaterPolo), X (
@NavyWaterPolo), and Facebook (
@NavyWaterPolo).
Scouting the Midshipmen
Navy enters the weekend 15-7 overall and 7-1 in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference.
Kiefer Black leads the team with 95 points on a team-high 53 goals and team-best 42 assists. He is followed by
Aiden Day and
James Mulvey who have 52 and 44 points, respectively. Day has 29 goals and 23 assists, while Mulvey has 25 goals and 19 assists.
Quinn Bartlett and
Connor Cashman round out Navy's top five. Bartlett has 33 points on 19 goals and 14 assists, while Cashman has 30 points on 21 goals and nine helpers.
Defensively, Navy has used three goalkeepers –
Ryan Munch,
Jack Rodoni, and
Jack Hightower – through the season. Munch leads the team with 103 saves, while Rodoni and Hightower follow with 51 and 36 stops, respectively.
Munch leads the team with 28 steals with Black and
Jack Mason following with 21 apiece.
Aiden Berry is next with 17, while
Ramsay Letteau Stallings,
Holden Seybold and Hightower are tied for fifth with 16 apiece.
Billy Zech leads the team with 31 ejections drawn with
Maddox Garrahy one back with 30.
Jack Reif, Seybold, and Black follow with 29, 26, and 23, individually.
Scouting the Opposition
George Washington: The Revolutionaries enter the weekend 12-12 overall with a 5-2 mark in conference play. Last weekend, George Washington went 2-2 at the Brown / Harvard Invitational, defeating LIU (W, 11-8) and MIT (W, 17-10), while dropping games to tournament-hosts Brown (L, 13-10) and #19 Harvard (L, 16-14).
Iona: The Gaels are 6-10 on the season after winning four of their last five games. Most recently, Iona defeated LIU (W, 18-14) in a conference game before taking down Connecticut College (W, 21-9) later in the day. The Gaels will take on Mount St. Mary's on Friday, Oct. 24 at 4:00 p.m. before playing Navy on Saturday.
Athletes of the Week
The MAWPC announced its weekly awards and a pair of Navy student-athletes received honors. Junior attacker
Aiden Day was named Offensive Player of the Week, while freshman attacker
Aiden Berry claimed Rookie of the Week. The duo helped Navy to a three-game sweep over the weekend – W, 19-4 at Mercyhurst; W, 18-12 vs. Gannon; and W, 19-14 vs. Bucknell – in Erie, Pa.
Day scored 10 points on a team-high six goals with four assists in the two games he played in (Gannon and Bucknell). The junior was balanced against Gannon, netting two goals with a pair of assists for four points against the Golden Knights. Against Bucknell, the Oceanside, Calif. native led the team with four goals, while adding a pair of assists for six points in the conference victory.
Berry led all Navy rookies with seven points on three goals and four assists. He opened the weekend with two points on a pair of assists in a MAWPC victory over Mercyhurst. Berry followed that with a goal in a win against Gannon to close out Saturday. On Sunday, the freshman recorded a balanced four points with two goals and a pair of assists in a league win over Bucknell.
Milestone Watch
Kiefer Black began the 2025 season with 296 points on 162 goals and 134 assists and several individual milestones within his reach. The junior currently has 391 points on 215 goals and 176 assists.
With 13 points at the Triton Invitational, he became the seventh player in program history with 300 or more career points.
With 16 points in Erie, Pa. last weekend, Black passed current Navy head coach
Luis Nicolao ('92) as the program's all-time leader in points. Black entered the weekend needing two points to tie and three points to pass Nicolao's 377 career total.
Additionally, with 17 goals at the Navy Open, the San Diego native entered Navy's all-time top 10 in career goals. On Sept. 27 against Mount St. Mary's, Black became the eighth player in program history with 200 or more goals. With 215 goals entering the weekend, he ranks seventh in career scores. Black is three (3) goals shy of Joe Donahue ('04) who stands in sixth-place with 218 goals; is seven (7) scores shy of Tom Temple ('88) who finished his career with 222 in fifth; and nine (9) back of Isaac Salinas ('22) for fourth with 224. Nicolao is the all-time leader in goals scored in program history with 282.
The junior is already the all-time assists leader in Navy history with 176, passing Tom Popp ('89) who had 139 career helpers for the record.
Last season, Black registered his second consecutive 100-point season (125 points in 2023; 171 points in 2024), joining Nicolao (118 point in 1990; 114 points in 1991) and Doug Munz ('95 – 113 points in 1993; 184 points in 1994) as the only players in program history with multiple 100-point seasons. This season, Black has 95 points on 53 goals and 42 assists.
Up Next
Following the games this weekend, the Midshipmen continue the homestand with three games. The Mids welcome Wagner to Lejeune Hall on Saturday, Nov. 1 for a MAWPC game at 6:00 p.m. The Midshipmen continue the weekend against defending conference champion Fordham on Sunday, Nov. 2 at 11:00 a.m. before concluding the weekend with Johns Hopkins on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on Navy Athletics YouTube.
