ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy water polo team (17-7, 8-1) returns to action for three games this weekend to close out the home portion of the 2025 schedule. The Midshipmen will take on Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) opponent Wagner (9-11, 2-3) on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. before concluding the weekend with a pair of contests against #5 Fordham (15-3, 6-0) on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. and Johns Hopkins (15-4) on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. All three games will be played in Lejeune Hall and broadcast on
Navy Athletics YouTube.
Sunday afternoon's game against the Blue Jays will serve as Senior Day for the Midshipmen. Navy will honor its four seniors –
Rory Begin,
Jack Hightower,
Shaan Sandhoo, and team captain
Holden Seybold – 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 (
@NavyWaterPolo), and Facebook (
@NavyWaterPolo).
Scouting the Midshipmen
Navy enters the weekend 17-7 overall and 8-1 in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference.
Kiefer Black leads the team with 105 points on a team-high 61 goals and team-best 44 assists. He is followed by
Aiden Day and
James Mulvey who have 56 and 46 points, respectively. Day has 30 goals and 26 assists, while Mulvey has 26 goals and 20 assists.
Quinn Bartlett and
Connor Cashman round out Navy's top five. Bartlett has 42 points on 25 goals and 17 assists, while Cashman has 31 points on 21 goals and 10 helpers.
Defensively, Navy has used three goalkeepers –
Ryan Munch,
Jack Rodoni, and
Jack Hightower – through the season. Munch leads the team with 118 saves, while Rodoni and Hightower follow with 51 and 44 stops, respectively.
Munch leads the team with 29 steals with Black and
Jack Mason following with 24 and 22, respectively.
Aiden Berry is next with 20, while Hightower rounds out the top five in takeaways with 19.
Maddox Garrahy and
Jack Reif lead the team with 32 ejections drawn apiece with
Billy Zech one back with 31.
Holden Seybold and Black follow with 27 and 25, individually.
Scouting the Opposition
Wagner: The Seahawks enter the weekend 9-11 overall with a 2-3 mark in conference play. Last time out, Wagner went 2-2 at the Brown / Harvard Invitational, defeating MIT (W, 13-7) and LIU (W, 16-9), while dropping games to tournament-hosts #17 Harvard (L, 16-13) and Brown (L, 10-9). The Seahawks take on Mount St. Mary's on Friday evening before playing Navy on Saturday.
Fordham: The Rams are 15-3 overall with a 6-0 record in league competition Most recently, Fordham competed at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament in California, going 1-1 on the weekend. The Rams dropped a 19-10 decision to #3 Stanford, while posting a 10-9 victory over #8 San Jose State. Fordham takes on #11 Princeton on Saturday before matching up against the Midshipmen on Sunday.
Johns Hopkins: The Blue Jays are 15-4 on the season after winning their last four games. Most recently, Johns Hopkins defeated Connecticut College (W, 21-10), Penn State Behrend (W, 26-9), Austin (W, 25-11), and Washington and Jefferson (W, 14-4) in a set of conference games. The game between the Midshipmen and Blue Jays will serve as Senior Day for Navy.
Athletes of the Week
The MAWPC announced its weekly awards and a pair of Navy student-athletes received honors.
Kiefer Black was named Offensive Player of the Week, while
Ryan Munch claimed Defensive Player of the Week. The duo helped Navy to a pair of victories over the weekend, defeating #20 George Washington, 12-9, and Iona, 18-8.
Black posted a team-high 10 points on a team-best eight goals with a pair of assists. The junior paced the Midshipmen with six points on a team-high five goals and an assist against nationally-ranked GW. He followed that performance with his second hat trick of the weekend, notching three goals with an assist against the Gaels. Black's six points against George Washington gave him 101 on the season, making him the first player in program history with three 100-point seasons. With four points against Iona, Black, who passed current Navy head coach
Luis Nicolao for first place in career points last weekend, became the first player in Navy history to top the 400-point plateau (401).
Munch helped Navy secure a 12-9 victory over Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference opponent #20 George Washington on Friday evening. The sophomore recorded 15 saves, while allowing single-digit goals (9). The 15 stops marked a season high for Munch and the second-most saves for the sophomore in a game in his short career. Munch's 15 saves marked the fifth time this season (in 15 games played) that Munch has registered double-digit stops.
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 401 points on 223 goals and 178 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., 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. Black is the only player in program history with 400 or more career points.
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 223 goals entering the weekend, he ranks fifth in career scores. Black is one (1) goal shy of Isaac Salinas ('22) who stands in fourth-place with 224 goals and is two (2) scores shy of Greg Mendenhall ('97) who finished his career with 226 in third. 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 178, passing Tom Popp ('89) who had 139 career helpers for the record.
Last weekend, Black registered his third consecutive 100-point season (125 points in 2023; 171 points in 2024; 105 in 2025) to become the first player in program history with three 100-point seasons. Last year, the San Diego native joined 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. Currently, Black has 105 points on 61 goals and 44 assists.
Up Next
Following the games this weekend, the Midshipmen conclude the regular season with a road game at George Washington. The Midshipmen and Revolutionaries are set to compete on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:00 p.m.
