Princeton University
Brown
Players Mentioned
Men's Water Polo Falls Short in CWPA Title Tilt Against Brown, 7-6
November 23, 2014 | Men's Water Polo
PRINCETON, N.J. – The eighth-ranked Princeton University men's water polo team fell short in its quest for a fourth CWPA Championship with a hard-fought 7-6 loss to Brown University in Sunday's title tilt at the United States Naval Academy's Lejeune Hall.
Avenging a 9-7 setback to the Tigers in the finals of the Ivy Tournament, Brown earned the CWPA's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Championships. Seeing its 12-game win streak come to an end, Princeton fell to 23-4 on the year.
Staking Brown to an early lead, Nick Deaver netted the game's first goal 57 seconds after the opening sprint. After consecutive Henry Fox 5-meter scores upped the Bears' margin to 3-0, Connor McGoldrick got the Tigers on the board with just 57 seconds left in the period.
Padding Brown's cushion early in the second, Matty Gallas took advantage of an Orange and Black penalty with a goal at 6:55. With less than three minutes to go in the half, Jovan Jeremic answered, recording a man-up goal of his own to trim the Princeton deficit to 4-2. In the waning moments of the quarter, Jeremic struck again, notching another man-up score with just eight seconds on the clock to pull the Tigers within one.
Opening the second half scoring, Tyler Kirchberg stretched the Bears' margin to 5-3 with a goal at 6:25. Coming right back, Drew Hoffenberg an Thomas Nelson netted back-to-back scores to suddenly pull Princeton even at 5-5 heading into the final frame.
Putting Brown back on top, Fox broke the deadlock at the 5:44 mark of the fourth with his third goal of the contest. Pushing forward inside of four minutes, Princeton came up with the equalizer as Jordan Colina set up McGoldrick for the freshman's second power play goal of the game.
Coming out of a timeout, the Bears jumped back in front with 2:20 remaining in regulation thanks to a Will Klein goal off of a Gallas assist. With under a minute to play, Colina narrowly missed an opportunity to tie it up, rattling a shot off of the post to seal the Tigers' fate.
Jeremic and McGoldrick paced the Princeton offense with two goals apiece, while Nelson and Hoffenberg accounted for the Tigers' two other scores. Colina went 4-0 on sprints. Turning in another solid outing, rookie netminder Vojislav Mitrovic finished with 15 saves, falling one stop short of matching a career-high.
Mitrovic, Nelson and Hoffenberg each garnered CWPA first team All-Tournament honors for their efforts with Mitrovic earning praise as the Rookie of the Tournament. Allowing just 12 goals in three games, Mitrovic stopped 37 of the 49 shots he faced, posting a 0.755 save percentage in three tourney games. Hoffenberg and Nelson had five goals apiece.
COMPLETE BOX SCORE
Goals: Jeremic 2, McGoldrick 2, Nelson 1, Hoffenberg 1
Assists: Colina 1, Hoffenberg 1
Sprints: Colina 4-0
Saves: Mitrovic 15