Water Polo beats Bucknell

The Johns Hopkins Water Polo team ended their fall season this past weekend, earning a seventh place finish in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Eastern Championships held at Brown University.

The Blue Jays dropped matches to St. Francis and Iona on Saturday but regrouped and defeated Bucknell on Sunday morning to secure their finish. The Blue Jays' seventh place finish in the Championships was their best ever.

Freshman Win Bates scored three goals and sophomore Dan Stillman added two of his own in the Jays' 9-6 win over Bucknell. The game was played to a 5-5 standstill in the first half. However, in the second half the Jays' offense exploded, outscoring the Bison 4-1 to break the game open. Brian Mead, Geoff McCann, Mac Sanford and Paul Ramaley all added goals in the win. Junior goalie Craig Smith had three saves to preserve the win.

This victory was the fifth time the Jays have defeated the Bison this season.

On Saturday, in the opening game of the tournament, the Blue Jays fell to St. Francis, 15-8. St. Francis was the eventual third place finisher in the tournament.

The team started out slowly and fell behind early to St. Francis, and could not recover. Mac Sanford had three goals, Brian Mead managed to put in two of his own, and McCann, Stillman and Bates all added one apiece in the losing cause.

In Hopkins' second game on Saturday, the Blue Jays mounted a strong second half comeback to threaten eventual fifth-place finisher Iona. After trailing 8-1 at half-time, the Jays' offense was unleashed dramatically resulting in 11 second-half goals. Brian Mead, a Second Team Eastern Championship All Tournament Team selection, led the way with six goals.

McCann and Ramaley added two goals apiece and the Jays received goals from both Parker Emmott and Sanford, but still the Jays fell just one goal short, losing 12-11.

The water polo team finished the season with a 17-17 mark, for a No. 3 ranking in the Division III CWPA poll and a No. 8 ranking in the CWPA's Top 10 Poll. Mead, who scored a total of nine goals at the Eastern Championships this past weekend was also recently named to First Team All Conference in the Southern Division. McCann joined him on the Second Team.