No. 14 Princeton Hosts No. 15 St. Francis-Brooklyn In Crucial NWPC Senior Day Matchup

Saturday, November 4

Princeton, N.J.

6:00 PM

Princeton University

#15 St. Francis-Brooklyn

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

No. 14 Princeton Hosts No. 15 St. Francis-Brooklyn In Crucial NWPC Senior Day Matchup

November 03, 2017 | Men's Water Polo

PRINCETON, N.J. – A crucial Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) contest takes place at DeNunzio Pool on Saturday evening (6 p.m.) at the No. 14 Princeton Tigers battles the No. 15 St. Francis-Brooklyn Terriers.

St. Francis would clinch the No. 1 seed in the NWPC Tournament (Nov. 17-19) with a victory while Princeton needs to win by more than four goals to get the No. 1 seed. The Terriers come in at 13-10 overall and 8-1 in the conference while Princeton is 20-5 this season and 7-2 in the NWPC.

Prior to the game on Saturday, the Tigers will honor the Class of 2018. The group has won 83 games and has gone an impressive 30-5 in conference action. The Tigers won two division titles and one conference championship, reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2015 during the last four years.

St. Francis defeated Princeton earlier this season on Oct. 11, 13-10. In the game, Jordan Colina became the sixth player in program history to reach the 200-goal milestone.

After a wild first quarter with each team scoring five goals, the Terriers snagged two of the three tallies in the second quarter to take a 7-6 advantage into the intermission. Princeton countered with two of three goals in the third stanza, setting the score at 8-all after 24 minutes.

The Terriers ran out with three consecutive goals to open the fourth quarter to lead 11-8 with 3:36 to go. Every time the Tigers tried to make a run, St. Francis-Brooklyn answered as the road team could not get any closer than two the rest of the way.

The Tigers drop to No. 14 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Varsity Poll after their loss to Harvard last week. Harvard jumped in front of Princeton at No. 13 while St. Francis-Brooklyn is No. 15. The top 11 in the poll remained the same with USC, Cal, UCLA, Stanford and Pacific lead the way.

Princeton has an impressive offense that scores over 12.7 goals per game this year with two players over 60 goals and another with over 50 tallies. Jordan Colina (63) and Sean Duncan (60) have combined for 38.6 percent of the Tigers' goals. Matt Payne has added 56 tallies while Michael Swart has 45 goals for head coach Luis Nicolao's unit.

Ryan Wilson leads the team with 100 points in 2017. He has already set the single-season record with 78 assists this year and has the career record for assists with 164. Vojislav Mitrovic is 15-5 in goal with 252 saves and a .585 save percentage.

Nicolao reached the 400-victory milestone for the men's water polo program with the win over Iona on Wednesday. He is 400-162 (.712) with the men's team and 442-149 (.748) with the women's squad. In his time at Princeton, Nicolao has made the NCAA Tournament a combined seven times.