Many coaches will advise athletes never to put any stock in rankings. No matter who's ranked higher, the team that shows up to play is going to come away with the win. This, unfortunately, was the case for the Hopkins men's water polo team as they entered the Eastern Championships on Nov. 16. The Jays entered the tournament as the third seed but had to settle for a seventh-place finish after two tough losses.
The first opponent for the Jays was the sixth-ranked Harvard Crimson. Neither team would give up easily in a game that saw a total of four lead changes. Hopkins opened the game when junior Josh Kratz scored only 1:18 into the game. However, the lead was short-lived as the Crimson responded in kind with goals from Bret Voith and Spencer Livingston to take a 2-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
It was the Crimson that struck first at the start of the second, taking a 3-1 lead after a goal from Livingston 21 seconds into the quarter. The Jays responded with a goal from Peter Davis at 5:38. However, the half ended with the Crimson leading the Jays 5-2 after goals from Michael Byrd and Chris Ludwick.
It didn't take the Jays long to tie the game after halftime, when senior Sean McCreery went on the offensive, netting three goals in three minutes. Chris Hemmerle gave the Jays the lead with a goal of his own. But the Crimson responded with a goal from Voith with only 1:06 remaining, sending the two teams into the fourth quarter tied 6-6.
Things would not go the Blue Jays' way in the fourth, as Harvard outscored them 3-1. Goals from Ludwick and two from Voith pushed the Jays back to a three-goal deficit. The Jays' rally was cut short when they could only manage one more goal from Gertridge.
In the next round of play, the Hopkins men fought for a chance to move on in search of a third-place finish. In their way stood the Bucknell Bison, a team that has been a thorn in the side of the Jays all season. A new game saw the same old result as the Bison defeated the Jays for the third time this season.
At first it seemed as if the Jays would avenge their earlier losses, with a goal from Davis just 22 seconds into the game. But the Bison quickly responded with a goal only 17 seconds later. While it was the Jays' McCreery who managed to break the deadlock, finding the net with 5:36 to play, the Bison roared back with three goals over the next four minutes. The two sides went on to trade goals as the half ended with the score at 5-3.
Bucknell scored first in the second half with two quick goals, giving them a 7-3 lead, but the quarter ended at 7-5 with timely goals from McCreery and Hemmerle.
The Jays pulled within one in the third quarter, following a goal from Mark Masterson. But the Bison regained their two-goal lead by the end of the third. In the fourth quarter, Hemmerle once again brought the Jays within a goal of the Bison, but the opposition dominated the rest of the quarter. The match ended with the Bison running up the score to 11-8, sending the seventh/eighth place Jays to a match against Iona.
The Jays finished the tournament with a win over Iona 9-6, good enough for seventh place in the tournament. While they would have hoped for better, the victory allowed the team's five seniors to close out their careers with a victory. Among the seniors from this year, Sean McCreery stands out as the most decorated. A two-time Division-III Player of the Year, he also led the team with 93 goals this season and finished his career with a total of 310 goals, placing him fourth for career goals in Hopkins's history. McCreery also holds three of the top four single season goal totals in Hopkins's history.
The Blue Jays are already looking toward next year's season, when junior Peter Davis will more than likely emerge as a team leader, after being named to the year's CWPA All-South Team with McCreery. The always-strong Blue Jays will press on toward a championship next year under Coach Ted Bresnahan in his 18th season as the Jays' head coach.
