Princeton University Athletics
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Men's Water Polo Begins League Slate with Southern Swing
September 22, 2011 | Men's Water Polo
LINKS: Free webcast of Princeton-Navy game
PRINCETON (9/22/11) -- The 13th-ranked Princeton men's water polo team jumps into league play this weekend on the road at Johns Hopkins, Navy and George Washington. The Tigers begin the league slate with a perfect 8-0 record through two weekends of play.
Princeton won five times during the season-opening Princeton Invitational and then picked up three wins last weekend at the North-South Tournament. Princeton outscored its opponents 44-13 in those three games as it bested Iona, Connecticut College and Fordham in the event held at Navy. In Princeton's eight wins this season, the Tigers have outscored their opponents 105-40 and aside from a two-goal win over 13th-ranked Santa Clara in the season opener, Princeton's closest margin of victory is five goals in a win over Brown.
Princeton has scored double digits in goals in seven straight games and gotten goals from all 22 field players that have appeared in a game this season. Freshman Kayj Shannon, the CWPA Player and Rookie of the Week following the Princeton Invitational, has a team-high 15 goals through eight games. Junior Tommy Donahue has 12 goals to rank second, while junior Tim Wenzlau and freshman Matt Weber are tied for third with nine tallies.
Another freshman, Drew Hoffenberg, leads the team in assists with 12, while two first-year players, Thomas Nelson and Sam Butler, rank first and second on the squad in steals. Senior Mike Helou has a team-best 12 drawn ejections while sophomore Kurt Buchbinder has won 10 of 13 sprints.
In goal, sophomores Tyler Amina and Nick Gilligan have held strong and combined to stop more than 63 percent of the shots they've faced. Amina has allowed 21 goals on 66 shots and also chipped in six assists and four steals, while Gilligan has 24 saves on 43 shots and five steals.
The Tigers will look to continue their winning ways this weekend in their first league games of the season. The Tigers went 6-2 in the CWPA Southern Division last season to finish second. Like last year, the Tigers will open with a trip to Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Annapolis this weekend. A year ago Princeton swept the weekend with wins at all three and it will look for that again this season.
Princeton opens the weekend on Friday night at Hopkins against the 5-3 Blue Jays. Hopkins went 1-1 last weekend at the North-South with a win over Iona and a loss to Brown. Three of the team's five wins have come at the expense of Iona, plus the team has beaten Fordham and Harvard.
The weekend continues with two games on Saturday, starting with a noon contest at Navy. The Midshipmen are 13-3 overall and are coming off a busy weekend that saw them field teams in California and Maryland. Navy's A team went 6-2 in eight games on the West Coast, winning against Whittier, Loyola Marymount, Cal Baptist, Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The Midshipmen fell at UC San Diego and Pomona-Pitzer and dropped a spot to 16th in the most recent national poll.
The weekend will conclude on Saturday afternoon at George Washington. The Colonials are 5-6 overall and went 2-1 last weekend at the North-South Tournament, topping Washington & Jefferson and Connecticut College, but falling to Brown.
Looking ahead, the Tigers will travel to California next weekend, visiting Loyola Marymount and USC on Thursday, before competing in the SoCal Tournament over the weekend.