ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The #20 Navy water polo team opens up the 2025 campaign in California for five games. The Midshipmen start up the season against defending national champion and top-ranked UCLA on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. (ET) in at Coronado High School in Coronado, Calif. The Mids will then compete in the Triton Invitational hosted by UC San Diego in La Jolla, Calif on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 30-31.
The Triton Invitational features a 13-team field of some of the best water polo teams in the country – George Washington, La Verne, #6 Long Beach State, #20 Navy, Occidental, #7 Pepperdine, Pomona-Pitzer, #10 San Jose State, #14 UC Davis, #12 UC San Diego, #15 UC Santa Barbara, #1 UCLA, and #2 USC. Information, including directions and ticket information, about the 2025 Triton Invitational can be found
here.
On Saturday, the Mids begin competition against #7 Pepperdine at 11:00 a.m. (ET) before taking on Occidental at 4:20 p.m. (ET). Navy concludes the Triton Invite on Sunday as the Midshipmen face a pair of ranked opponents – #15 UC Santa Barbara (11:00 a.m. ET) and #6 Long Beach State (4:20 p.m. ET).
Both games on Saturday will be held at the Canyonview Pool, while Sunday's games will be at the Triton Pool.
Media Coverage
For more information on Navy water polo, follow the team on Instagram (
@NavyWaterPolo), X (
@NavyWaterPolo), and Facebook (
@NavyWaterPolo).
Seybold Named 2025 Water Polo Team Captain
Navy water polo head coach
Luis Nicolao officially announced that
Holden Seybold will be the team captain for the 2025 campaign. Seybold is a three-time letterwinner who has played in 79 games with 52 goals and 22 assists for 74 total points, while adding 68 steals and 36 ejections drawn.
National Rankings
The Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) announced its preseason poll and the Navy water polo team starts the 2025 season ranked 20th. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, the Mids will square off against four teams over the weekend ranked in the initial CWPA poll – #1 UCLA, #6 Long Beach State, #7 Pepperdine, and #15 UC Santa Barbara.
In addition, the CWPA selected the Midshipmen to finish second in the MAWPC. Fordham, who was preseason ranked third, was predicted to repeat as MAWPC champions. George Washington was picked third in the conference rankings, while Bucknell was picked fourth with Wagner rounding out the league's top 5.
Season in Review
In 2024, Navy posted a 22-10 overall record with an 8-8 mark in conference play. The Midshipmen entered the MAWPC Tournament, which was held in Lejeune Hall, as the No. 3 seed, but victories over Mount St. Mary's (W, 19-15) and George Washington (W, 10-9) boosted Navy into the championship game. Navy fell 18-11 to #3 Fordham in the MAWPC Tournament Championship, finishing as the runner ups for the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four years.
Kiefer Black (first team),
Orion Erwin (second team), and
Michael Heller (honorable mention) led the team as All-Conference selections. At the conference tournament, then-freshman
Ryan Munch was named Rookie of the Tournament, while Black and Erwin were each selected First Team All-Tournament. Additionally,
Billy Zech was selected Second Team All-Tournament. In addition to being Rookie of the Tournament, Munch was named honorable mention all-tournament.
Black, who was named to the Peter J. Cutino Watch List, was named 2024 ACWPC All-American as an honorable mention selection. It was the second All-American accolade in his career, earning honorable mention distinction as a freshman in 2023.
Navy closed out the 2024 season ranked in the final CWPA national rankings, coming in at #19. The Midshipmen were ranked or receiving votes each week of the year, starting during the preseason poll.
Offensively, the Midshipmen tallied 476 goals in 32 games (14.9 gpg) with 22 different student-athletes finding the back of the net.
Black led the team with 171 points on 94 goals and 77 assists. He 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.
Heller,
Luka Sekulic,
Quinn Bartlett, and Erwin followed Black to round out Navy's top five. Heller had 63 points on 47 goals and 16 assists, while Sekulic was one point back with 62 points on 48 goals and 14 assists. Bartlett finished with 61 points on 33 scores and 28 helpers, while Erwin was relatively balanced with 35 goals and 24 assists for 59 points.
Defensively, Navy primarily used three goalkeepers on the year. Munch led the team with 169 saves, while
Jack Hightower and
Jack Rodoni follow with 62 and 58 stops, respectively.
Holden Seybold led the team with 36 steals, while Black (30) also recorded 30-plus takeaways.
Maddox Garrahy paced the team with 67 ejections drawn with Zech following with 60 kickouts drawn.
With a win against Concordia at the Rare Air Challenge, head coach
Luis Nicolao recorded his 500th victory as a men's head coach. Nicolao became 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. One day later, Nicolao reached another milestone, recording his 100th victory as the Navy head coach with a 24-16 win over Cal Lutheran.
Up Next
Following the California swing, the Midshipmen will head to Princeton, N.J. for the annual Princeton Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5-6. The Mids will take on Wagner (2:30 p.m.) and LIU (7:00 p.m.) on day one of competition before concluding the Princeton Invite with Harvard (3:30 p.m.) on Saturday.
