Water Polo sweeps Eastern Div. III competition, advances to regionals

Junior driver Ryan Ford was named Most Valuable Player as the Johns Hopkins Water Polo team swept all of its games to capture the Eastern Division III Championship Oct. 13 at Grover City College.

Ford led the Blue Jays (8-11) to a 4-0 sweep and its seventh title in 11 years, scoring 10 goals during the weekend.

Johns Hopkins defeated the defending champions MIT, 14-10. Last year, MIT narrowly defeated the Blue Jays, 10-9, in sudden-death overtime in the championship game. Junior driver co-captains Ford and Paul Ramaleyand freshman driver Brian Mead each scored three goals in the victory.

"We proved to ourselves that we are the best Eastern Division III team," Ford said. "There were no breakdowns of the team at all. We scored almost at will and kept a consistently strong defense."

Throughout the entire weekend, the Blue Jays never trailed, as they were able to score early and often and kept their composure as teams tried making comebacks. In the opening of the second half in the final game, MIT came out fast with back-to-back goals, but Johns Hopkins kept control of the game and responded to every attack.

"We played the best I've seen us play as a team," Ramaley said. "In all the games, we got out to great starts and used our depth to put teams away."

Johns Hopkins opened the weekend defeating the United States Merchant Marines Academy, 14-9. Despite a close first quarter, the Blue Jays never fell behind with the offensive support of four goals by Ford.

In the quarterfinals, the Blue Jays shut out Penn State 6-0 in the first quarter en route to a 14-3 victory. Sophomore driver Sajod Moradi led Johns Hopkins with four goals. In addition, junior 2M Fred Kingston and sophomore driver Adam Drucker scored two each to lead a well-balanced offensive effort.

The Blue Jays advanced to the championship game with an impressive semifinal victory over Washington & Jefferson, 12-4. Ford and Ramaley each scored three goals.

With the championship, Johns Hopkins dramatically improved its record and proved that it will be in serious contention for an Eastern Championship berth in November.

"In the beginning of the year, lots of the mistakes were made because we are a young team," Ford said. "But now there are no more questions about what we need to do. We have overcome those hurdles that hurt us early on and proved to ourselves that we have what it takes to play on the next level."

In the five games this season that have been decided by two goals or less, the Blue Jays have been 2-5. Most of the losses in those close games have resulted from a breakdown of the defense late in the fourth quarter. But during the Division III Championships, Johns Hopkins showed that it can play at a high intensity throughout the game and work past the runs of the other teams.

"The team has begun to become more fired up and mentally prepared for the games," Ramaley said. "We first changed out attitude about the game, working through the slumps and maintaining our discipline, and as a result we began playing better as a team."

Johns Hopkins next travels to Princeton to compete in the Interregional Championships Oct. 19, facing Slippery Rock University in the first round.