Princeton University Athletics
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Women's Water Polo Team Heads to Eastern Tournament
April 29, 2010 | Women's Water Polo
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PRINCETON (4/29/10) -- The Princeton women's water polo team visits Maryland this weekend to compete for the CWPA's automatic berth in the NCAA tournament at the 2010 CWPA Eastern Championships.
Princeton received the fifth seed in the eight-team field and will take on fourth-seeded Bucknell in a rematch of last weekend's Southern Championship game, which went to Bucknell by a score of 11-9. It marks the fourth time in the last five season that Princeton will open Easterns against the team it faced in the Southern Championship game. Princeton has won the previous three of those meetings and has won its first round game at Easterns in five of the past six seasons.
The Eastern championship annually pits the top two finishers in the CWPA's Southern, Northern and Western Divisions with two at-large selections. This year's field includes Michigan and Indiana from the West, Hartwick and Brown from the North and Princeton and Bucknell from the South. Maryland (South) and Harvard (North) earned the two at-large slots in the field. The Princeton and Bucknell game is paired in the tournament bracket with the matchup that features top-seed Michigan and Harvard.
Princeton had its stretch of five-straight opening-round wins at Easterns snapped last season in an opening-round loss to Michigan. Princeton finished sixth last season in the field, but has a second, two thirds and a fourth in the previous four tournaments.
Princeton and Bucknell both finished the Southern regular season with identical 5-1 records with each beating the other at home. Bucknell was awarded the Southern top seed because of goal differential and then won the third meeting of the two teams by jumping to an early lead and staving off an attempted Princeton comeback.
Brittany Zwirner led all scorers in last weekend's two games with five goals and she now ranks second on the team with 45 goals in her freshman campaign, six behind Phoebe Champion, and the team's leader with 51 goals this season. Champion also scored in both games last weekend, along with Helen Meigs and Saranna Soroka.
Princeton was 8-5 against the Eastern field this season, sporting a 3-0 record against Maryland and a 2-1 mark against Brown and adding wins over Bucknell and Harvard. Two of the five losses came to Bucknell with the others coming to Michigan, Indiana and Brown.
The tournament begins on Friday at Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center. Princeton faces Bucknell at 1 p.m.