Seniors lead Water Polo to win at home

Hopkins water polo traveled all the way to Claremont, Calif. to compete in the Gary Troyer Memorial Tournament this past weekend. The extended road trip was a huge success, resulting in a 3-1 record, which included a monumental victory over Pomona-Pitzer, previously the number one ranked Division III school.

Hopkins started the tournament strong, beating Occidental 19-6 in the first game. The Jays used a 6-0 run in the first quarter to pull away early against the Tigers and the rest of the game followed suit. Senior Ross Schofield scored 5 goals, followed by 3 from senior Alex Whittam, and a pair from junior Thomas De Lyon and sophomore Johnny Beal. Sophomore Danny Ovelar saved five goals and freshman Erik Henrikson saved four.

The following game was a challenge for the Blue Jays, ending in a 11-7 defeat against fourth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps that evening. Schofield scored 3, Whittam scored a pair, and junior Stephen Kingery and freshman Kevin Yee saw the back of the net once.

The next morning, Hopkins redeemed itself against Pomona-Pitzer, winning an extremely close match by only one goal. Schofield put it away in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter, when the score was 9-9, leading the Jay’s to a 10-9 victory against the Sagehens.

The team concluded its weekend on a high note as they scored a 10-4 win over the Redlands Bulldogs. Hopkins started off strong with a 5-1 lead at the half. Redlands caught up and the teams each scored two in the third quarter, leading to a 7-3 score going into the final stanza. The Jays finished strong and outscored the Bulldogs 3-1 to take the win. This was an exciting victory as it is just the second win for Hopkins over Redlands in the series and the first since 2005.

Senior and co-captain Alex Whittam remarked that it was an exciting, fun-filled and victorious weekend that made him proud of be a Blue Jay.

Following their successful weekend in California, the Blue Jays got back into the pool in a matchup against 14th ranked Navy.

In their last home game of the season, Hopkins proved themselves as a top Division III team by taking down Navy 14-13 in a match that went down to the wire. Despite not leading for the entire game, the Blue Jays stood with the Midshipmen throughout, never letting Navy get more than a three goal lead.

Play started with the Mids taking a quick 1-0 lead off of a goal from Ned Pedrotty. However, Hopkins pulled even with a goal from senior Kielan Crow to tie the game. The rest of the match would play out in a similar manner, with Navy taking the lead and Hopkins answering.

With 56 seconds to go and the score tied 12-12, sophomore Wes Hopkins scored to put the Blue Jays up for good.

In the final home game of this career, Crow led the Jays with four goals and one assist while fellow senior Ross Schofield pitched in three goals of his own along with three assists.