Princeton No. 12 Varsity Poll, Ready For West Coast Trip This Weekend

Friday, September 22

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:45 PM EST (4:45 PM PST)

Princeton University

#6 Long Beach State

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Princeton No. 12 Varsity Poll, Ready For West Coast Trip This Weekend

September 20, 2017 | Men's Water Polo

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Princeton Tigers come in as the No. 12 team in the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Varsity Poll, the conference announced today.

Cal is still the top team in the poll, followed by USC, Stanford, UCLA and Pacific. Harvard remains as the top team in the Northeast Water Polo Conference squad at No. 11.

After a week off, the Tigers head west to participate the Mountain Pacific Invitational, hosted by No. 2 USC and No. 20 Loyola Marymount. The three-day tournament (Sept. 22-24) will feature Air Force, No. 1 Cal., No. 6 Long Beach State, No. 5 Pacific, No. 9 Pepperdine, No. 19 Pomona-Pitzer, San Jose State, No. 3 Stanford, No. 8 UC-Davis, No. 10 UC-Irvine, No. 4 UCLA, No. 13 UC-San Diego, No. 7 UC-Santa Barbara and the two host schools.

Princeton will take on No. 6 Long Beach State on Friday at 7:45 p.m. (4:45 p.m. PST). Long Beach State has won six of seven matchups vs. the Tigers. The winner of this meeting will take on winner of No. 3 Stanford and No. 19 Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. (12:45 p.m. PST). The two losing teams from each contest will also battle on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (12 p.m. PST). Princeton has never won against Stanford (0-7) and has never lost to Pomona-Pitzer (2-0).

The 2017 season began for Princeton with a tripleheader at the Navy Open. The Tigers dropped Salem International (21-9), Fordham (12-7), and LaSalle (15-8) before defeating Navy, 17-11 the next day. Jordan Colina was selected as the Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Player of the Week after posting 16 points, 11 goals and five assists over the 4-0 weekend at the Navy Open.

The Tigers had a 3-1 weekend at the Princeton Invitational the following week. Princeton defeated Chapman (15-6) and Johns Hopkins (9-5) on Friday before a victory over Santa Clara (16-9) on Saturday. On Sunday, head coach Luis Nicolao's team dropped a close battle vs. No. 4 UCLA in a game shown on ESPNU.

Colina earned his second straight NWPC Player of the Week accolade after posting three tallies vs. Johns Hopkins and Santa Clara before tying his career high with six tallies vs. No. 4 UCLA. He also added five steals vs. Johns Hopkins. He leads the team with 24 goals and 20 steals. He's also team-leader in points with 33 while Ryan Wilson is right behind him with 32 points (nine goals, 23 assists). 14 Tigers have scored this season. Vojislav Mitrovic is 5-1 on the season with .586 save percentage and 68 saves.