The Hopkins water polo team headed out to California this past weekend for the annual Claremont Convergence tournament. The men played a total of four games, all of which were against top-ten ranked opponents.
Coming into the weekend's games, the Blue Jays were ranked as the number one team in Division III water polo for the seventh straight week in a row. This past weekend's games were unbelievably important for the team, as the results would surely dictate who the powerhouse was in Division III.
The team left Baltimore last Thursday and had its first pair of games the following day. First up was fourth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Unfortunately, the men were unable to swim and shoot to victory - they fell 8-5. In the second game of the day, the jet-lagged and tired Jays were nonetheless able to defeat sixth-ranked Cal Lutheran.
The final score of the game was 10-8. After a double-header day, the men retired to their rooms, eager to go out the next day and get back into the pool.
Saturday started off with the Jays pitted against fifth-ranked Whittier. Once again, the men were unable to pull out a victory.
They lost 8-6, and their weekend record now stood at 1-2. The final game of the weekend was now more crucial than ever.
For the final game of their California trip, the men were set to face Redlands. This match had been highly anticipated all weekend, as the first-ranked water polo team in Division III (Hopkins, that is) was placed against second-ranked water polo team in the same division (Redlands). In a well-fought match, Redlands was able to sneak past Hopkins with a 10-8 win. The Blue Jays finished the weekend with a 1-3 record.
They lost two of their three games by two goals, and the other game by three goals.
Overall, the total goal-to-goal-allowed ratio for the weekend was 29-34.
It was a disappointing weekend for the Blue Jays, which Head Coach Ted Bresnahan expressed after the game.
"This was the worst weekend we have ever experienced in the eight years of going out to California, going 1-3 in games," he said.
He mentioned the Hopkins loss in its first contest, Claremont-McKenne-Scripps College 8-5.
"The story of the game is that we could not convert better than three for ten opportunities on man advantage situations. The same could be said in our other two losses to Redlands and Whittier with a combined two for 14 of man advantage situations. Our offense is usually one of the best in the country but this was not the case this weekend."
According to Brenahan, Hopkins scored 29 goals out of 122 shots on goal, which is almost a 25 percent success rate.
"The frustrating part is we know we are better then the teams we lost to, we just could not capitalize on advantages," the head coach said.
Sophomore Kyle Maurer expressed the same disappointment in this weekend's performance as Bresnahan, saying, "It was just not a good weekend of play. We've beat all these teams before, but for some reason we just couldn't get going.
"We haven't had a California trip this disappointing in a while. It's not even that we got killed. Our defense played extremely well, but we just couldn't capitalize on advantage situations. It's frustrating, but we all know that we are better than what the record shows. We just need to gear up and show GW that we are still one of the best teams around," he added.
Despite the losses, Coach Bresnahan still found a positive aspect to this weekend's losses.
"Some good things came out of this weekend, as our press defense held three opponents under ten goals," he said.
"Our game plans were sound but we could not find the back of the net," he continued. "Freshman Kielan Crow had a hat trick against rival Redlands and Alex Whittam ended up with six goals on the weekend. Senior MG Gonzales had a fantastic weekend as a defender in all contests and moved up to a starting position in the rotation."
The men face George Washington this Friday at Homewood Field and are approaching the game with a chip on their shoulders.
