Princeton University
#4 Stanford
Players Mentioned
Men's Water Polo Tops No. 13 Long Beach State; Splits Day at SoCal Tourney
October 02, 2011 | Men's Water Polo
LINKS: SoCal Tournament Central
LONG BEACH, Calif. (10/1/11) - The 14th-ranked Princeton men's water polo team used a pair of goals late in the first half to pull away from 13th-ranked Long Beach State and earn an 8-4 win in its second game on Saturday at the SoCal Tournament. Princeton fell 14-3 in the day's opener to fourth-ranked Stanford.
The Tigers picked up the first win of their Western road trip by topping the tournament hosts by an 8-4 score. The teams traded first quarter goals and each scored in the first three minutes of the second quarter. Tied at 2-2, Princeton netted a pair of goals in the final two minutes of the half to take a lead it would keep throughout the second half. Matt Weber broke the deadlock with a set goal and Tim Wenzlau scored with the man advantage at 1:22 to give Princeton a 4-2 lead at the break.
Long Beach State scored the first goal of the second half to trim the lead to one, but successive goals from Kayj Shannon, Mike Helou and Thomas Nelson stretched the Princeton lead to four goals, which is where the game would finish.
Nelson and Shannon each scored twice in the win. Nelson, along with Kurt Buchbinder, had two assists, while Billy Tifft had a team-high three steals. Ben Dearborn stopped 12 shots in the goal for the win.
LBS 1 1 2 0 - 4
PRIN 1 3 3 1 - 8
Goals: Nelson 2, Shannon 2, Helou, Hoffenberg, Weber, Wenzlau
Assists: Buchbinder 2, Nelson 2, Weber
Saves: Dearborn 12 (32:00)
Princeton fell to Stanford in the day's first game by a 14-3 score. The Cardinal scored five goals in the first quarter and led 5-2 after eight minutes. Stanford would add three goals in each of the following quarters of the win. Drew Hoffenberg, Weber and Nelson scored for Princeton in the loss, with Hoffenberg and Nelson's goals coming with the man advantage. Tyler Amina made 11 saves in the loss.
STAN 5 3 3 3 - 14
PRIN 2 0 1 0 - 3
Goals: Hoffenberg, Nelson, Weber
Saves: Amina 11 (32:00)
Princeton moves to 11-4 overall with the split. The Tigers will continue the SoCal Tournament on Sunday with a pair of games. Princeton will face ninth-ranked UC Davis on Sunday at 10:40 a.m. Princeton will then face either 12th-ranked UC San Diego or 11th-ranked Loyola Marymount later in the day.