Despite having opened the season in historic fashion, the Johns Hopkins Water Polo team stumbled into the weekend, losing all games at their Princeton Invitational held in Princeton, N.J. on Sept. 8-9.
The Blue Jays (2-5) had opened the 2001 season at the Navy Labor Day Open in Annapolis, Sept. 1-2.
There, Johns Hopkins overwhelmed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the first round, 12-5.
The Blue Jays would go on to defeat Bucknell, 7-5, but would lost to St. Francis, 13-5, and to Iona, 13-11.
The 2-2 record was still good enough for the Blue Jays to finish sixth in the tournament, the highest finish for Johns Hopkins ever, 12th being its previous best finish.
Freshman driver Brian Mead led the team with 10 goals and junior driver and co-captain Ryan Ford had four. But the next tournament would prove to be less successful.
Ford led the Jays (2-5) into the invitational with three goals against St. Francis. But it was not enough to withstand the offensive presence of the Terriers, who won 13-6.
In the second match, Johns Hopkins almost pulled off the upset against host Princeton, heading into the second half tied at five.
However, the Tigers went on a 5-0 run in the third period, eventually defeating the Blue Jays, 11-6.
"Even though we lost, we played [Princeton] very well," Water Polo Head Coach Ted Bresnahan said. "Princeton was one of the top three teams in the nation last year, so we showed that we could play pretty even with them.
In the final match, sophomore driver Geoffrey McCann scored four goals, helping to build a 6-4 lead at the half against Queens College.
But weak defense allowed Queens to rally to a 10-9 victory.
In each game, the Blue Jays have received consistent play from sophomore goalie Craig Smith, who has averaged over 20 saves per game.
His 79-percent save rate has helped the Blue Jays remain close in each game.
With only five returning starters, the Blue Jays know that the team is quite young and inexperienced.
"We are a very young team," Ford said. "We are improving at a tremendous rate, but these first few games tell us that we need to get into shape and that we need to change up and fine tune our offense and defense."
Johns Hopkins will next play in the Kings Point tournament in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Sept. 15-16.
"We are the only Division III Water Polo team in the nation to make it to the Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Varsity Championships for two consecutive years (1999, 2000)," Bresnahan said. "Right now, we're looking just as good.
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