Princeton University Athletics
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Men's Water Polo Returns From Layoff Looking to Defend Southern Title
November 06, 2009 | Men's Water Polo
The Tigers finished in a three-way tie atop the Southern Division's East Region regular standings with Navy and Bucknell as all three schools split their regular season games. Princeton won the tiebreakers with both schools based on goal differential to earn the regular season championship, however Navy was voted as the top seed of the championship in a vote conducted by the ten head coaches of the Southern schools.
Princeton is currently 10-10 overall entering the championship season. The Tigers are 9-4 against teams from the east and enter the Southern Championship as the reigning champions. A season the Tigers won Southerns with wins over George Washington, Bucknell and Navy, edging the Midshipmen 12-11 in the championship game on senior Eric Vreeland's late goal. It marked Princeton's fifth Southern title and its first since 2004.
The Tigers have been led offensively this season by senior Mark Zalewski, whose 45 goals are a career high and rank 22nd in the country. He also ranks second with 14 assists. Princeton has five other scorers in double digits with senior Douglas Wigley adding 23 goals and freshman Tim Wenzlau contributing 18. Vreeland has 16 goals and leads the team with 21 assists.
Princeton was seeded second in the 10-team Southern Championship field. The top five spots were all taken by members of the East Region and the bottom five spots all went to West Region teams.
Princeton will open the weekend on Saturday morning against the winner of Friday night's game between seventh-seeded Gannon and 10th-seeded Salem International in the quarterfinals. The semifinals are scheduled for late Saturday afternoon and the placement games will be played on Sunday.
The top four finishers at Southerns will advance to the Eastern Championships the weekend of Nov. 20-22 at MIT.
A complete schedule can be found here.