The water polo team finished their regular season last Saturday with two games at Navy, resulting in a loss and a win.
A strong start against the hosts saw the Blue Jays 5-3 up at the half but a resurgent Navy smashed past their defense in the second half, outscoring JHU 7-1 in the third stanza and 6-2 in the fourth. The final score was 9-2.
Freshman Johnny Beal scored his second hat trick of the season. Junior Kielan Crow put two goals to his name and classmate Alex Whittam chipped in with three assists.
The second game saw the Jays ascend to a five goal advantage in the first quarter and keep the momentum up throughout the game for a 9-2 routing of Salem International.
Senior captain Mark Strickland contributed his fourth hat trick of the season. Sophomore Chase Hamilton chipped in two goals, an assist and four steals.
The fifth-seed Jays will return to action tomorrow in a CWPA Southern Championship match against fourth-seeded George Washington.
Strickland is confident that the team will perform tomorrow despite previous results against the GW squad.
"If we come out with intensity and play with what we're capable of then we're definitely gonna beat GW," he said.
"I think that the two times we lost to GW didn't accurately show our abilities because we need to swim. The two times we lost to GW have been in small pools. If we anticipate well and counter well and come out with intensity we'll run over them because they can't stay with us in a big pool."
The 22-year-old from Houston hopes to make a mark in the Hopkins history book in his last college season.
"I want to make it to [the Division III Eastern Championship] one last time and hopefully finish with the highest placing that Hopkins has ever had at Eastern," he said. "That's my goal."
Time will tell how it all ends this season. Watch out for some big moves in the coming games!
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