Last year, the Hopkins men’s water polo team had a slow 0-9 start to their 2016 season. This past weekend, however, the Jays entered the pool as a completely different team.
The Blue Jays kicked off their season on Saturday, Sept. 2 with a 13-1 win against the Washington & Jefferson College Presidents at the Navy Labor Day Open. From there, the Jays continued to reap win after win, finishing the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record to start their 2017 campaign.
Senior captain and goalie John Wilson explained how keeping the team’s morale high and starting off a new season on a clean slate helped to propel the team into the season.
“Dealing with such a difficult schedule last season was grueling but provided the returners with good motivation to work hard in preparation for this year,” Wilson said. “With experienced leadership and a hard working group of newcomers, we’re off to a strong start and looking forward to pushing ourselves.”
It took just 20 seconds for the Jays to score their first goal of the season, thanks to junior attacker Andreas Katsis, who scored off an assist from junior co-captain Josh Kurtz. Within 80 seconds of play, the Jays took a 3-0 lead over the Presidents.
In their second game of the day, Hopkins took on the Gannon University Golden Knights for their closest game of the tournament. The Blue Jays edged out the Golden Knights 12-11.
Much of the match went back and forth between the two teams, both of which entered the third quarter with four goals apiece. A pair of back-to-back goals by Hopkins in the third quarter pushed them past the Golden Knights.
With the Golden Knights fighting back and the score now tied at 6-6, junior co-captain Giorgio Cico and fellow junior, attacker Ryan Masi, pushed the Jays into the lead, scoring goals just 61 seconds apart. Both Cico and Masi finished the game with hat tricks.
With just under 90 seconds left in the third quarter, the Jays further extended their lead to three with goals from Katsis and sophomore attacker Finn Banks.
Hopkins entered the next day of the tournament looking to advance their perfect 2-0 record. Kurtz led the Jays in their opening match of the day against the Cal Lutheran University Kingsmen.
The game stayed close until the second quarter, with both teams tied at four at the 6:37 mark. After that, it was all Hopkins.
The Blue Jays went on an 8-1 run in a span of almost 16 minutes, bringing them to a 12-5 lead. Kurtz kicked off the Jays’ run with three goals followed by goals from five different Blue Jays. Kurtz would finish off the match with an impressive five goals and two assists.
Hopkins wrapped up their successful showing at the Labor Day Open against the La Salle University Explorers. The match remained even for the first quarter of play, until freshman driver Olin Shipstead kicked off a long, six-goal run for the Jays, putting Hopkins up 9-2 at the half.
A total of 10 different Blue Jays scored in the final match to claim the win and round off a perfect, undefeated record after the first tournament of the season.
“We’re proud of the character that the team demonstrated, especially our six freshmen who combined for 14 goals and six assists in their first weekend of college water polo,” Wilson said.
Meanwhile, on defense, Wilson managed an impressive 39 saves on the weekend and now ranks third in school history for career saves.
The Blue Jays hope to continue their success when they return to the pool next weekend for the Princeton Invitational.
“We have our work cut out for us going into Princeton next weekend, especially cleaning up our communication in the pool,” Wilson said. “But I think we are very well positioned at this time in the season.”
Hopkins will take on the 11th-ranked Princeton Tigers on Friday, Sept. 8 at 9 p.m.
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