Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Men's Water Polo Enters Southerns as Second Seed
November 04, 2010 | Men's Water Polo
Princeton earned the second seed for the event for the third-straight season. Princeton has advanced to the Southern Championship game in each of the last two seasons, winning the 2008 championship game 12-11 over Navy and falling in the 2009 title game to Navy by a score of 10-5. Princeton's 2008 title was it fifth overall and its first since the 2004 season.
Unlike in past seasons, the Southern seeding mirrors the top-four of the regular-season standings, with Navy earning the top seed, followed by Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Bucknell. Southern seedings are based on a poll of all the league coaches.
The Tigers finished their Southern regular season schedule 6-2 in league play. Princeton swept Johns Hopkins and George Washington and split with both Navy and Bucknell. Navy was first with a 7-1 record.
Princeton is 14-7 overall and enters the weekend after claiming the Ivy League Tournament Championship last weekend with a 7-6 overtime win against Brown. Princeton also defeated Yale in the semifinals of the event.
Tim Wenzlau scored two goals, including the game winner, against Brown and now leads the team with 30 goals scored this season, one ahead of Mike Helou's 29. Princeton has spread the wealth offensively as four scorers have at least 24 goals on the season. Wenzlau's two goals also moved the sophomore into Princeton's Top 20 career scorers. His 52 career goals now ranks 20th overall. Matt Hale (73) ranks 16th and Helou (44) ranks 25th at Princeton in career goals. Hale has also cracked the Top 10 in career assists, ranking 10th with 50.
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, where an NCAA Championship bid will be on the line, the weekend of Nov. 19-21 at Bucknell.
A complete schedule can be found here.