W. Polo splits weekend matches

The Johns Hopkins water polo team captured its third consecutive berth into the Eastern Championships after finishing fourth at the Southern Championships in Annapolis, Md. Nov. 2-4. The Blue Jays went 2-2 as they defeated Slippery Rock and Penn State Behrend but lost to Princeton and Bucknell.

Johns Hopkins (15-16) opened the tournament facing Slippery Rock, handily defeating them 16-6. Despite the easy route, the Blue Jays looked very inconsistent, playing without much effort on both sides of the pool.

"We were lucky that our first opponent was Slippery Rock," junior co-captain two-meter/driver Paul Ramaley said. "We came into the tournament a little overconfident so we didn't play that well in the beginning, but because we were playing a weaker team, we were still able to win."

The second round would prove to be easier than the match against Slippery Rock, as the Blue Jays defeated Penn State Behrend 13-4. After easily defeating Penn State earlier in the season 11-2, Johns Hopkins rested it's starters early, taking control of the match early.

"Penn State Behrend is in its second year as a water polo program," Ramaley said. "We knew we could defeat them easily so we looked at it as an opportunity to rest the starters and look to the next match against in the semifinals against Princeton."

Princeton, the eventual Southern champions, has always been a problem for the Blue Jays defeating them in both matches this season. And this game was no different, as Johns Hopkins was overmatched and outplayed, losing 9-4. Despite keeping the score close at 2-1 after the first quarter, defensive lapses and a lack of offensive production prevented a comeback.

"The Tigers were able to take us out of our game plan as they have done all season long," Ramaley said. "We had nothing concrete going on, as the defense couldn't stop the counterattack and we couldn't execute on the offensive end."

With the loss, the Blue Jays would play Bucknell in the third-place game. Having defeated Bucknell in three of four matches during the regular season, Johns Hopkins came into the game with confidence carried from its 11-6 victory against Bucknell, Nov. 28. But what the Blue Jays found was a more prepared, more potent team from what they had seen just the previous week.

Bucknell used a new defensive strategy that surprised Johns Hopkins and was able to jump out to a quick start. Never trailing by more than four goals, defensive lapses again resulted in a loss, as the defense could not provide support for the offense.

"We thought too well of ourselves," Ramaley said. "They were more focused that us. We had beaten them pretty convincingly in our last match, so we thought that we could just walk in there and take care of them, but they just outplayed us."

With the fourth place finish, the Blue Jays barely slipped into the Eastern Championships. However, the final seed may prove to be a better match-up for Johns Hopkins. A fourth-place finish has the Blue Jays seeded against Queens in the first round, a team that barely defeated Johns Hopkins Sept. 9, 10-9. Had the Blue Jays finished third, the team would have faced a St. Francis team that has gone 4-0 against Johns Hopkins, defeating them each time by at least seven goals.

Something that the Blue Jays will have to work on is its offense. All season long, the defense has been fairly consistent, but the offense has been hurt by a lack of execution, especially in close games. In addition, since the teams in the Eastern Championships will be bigger and faster than the competition that Johns Hopkins is used to, it will have to make the adjustments to stop those teams.

The Blue Jays will next face Queens in the first round of the Eastern Championships Nov. 16-18 at Princeton.

"We are a better team than we were at the beginning of the season, but there are no more easy games now," Ramaley said. "We finished eighth last season in the Easterns, but this year we are looking for more.