The Hopkins water polo team embarked on their annual trip to California this past weekend to square off against the top Division III teams in the nation. At the Gary Troyer Memorial Tournament in Claremont, Calif., the Blue Jays went 3-1, defeating No. 1 ranked Redlands.
The only loss of the weekend came at the hands of No. 4 ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) in the Blue Jays’ first game — an 8-9 one-goal thriller. Hopkins’ luck would change as they rallied for the win to edge out No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer 12-11 later that afternoon. After two closely contested matches Saturday, Hopkins managed to handily defeat Sunday’s competition, topping No. 8 La Verne 15-11 and trouncing No. 1 Redlands 11-5.
Hopkins got the ball rolling early in tournament play with a 22 second goal from junior Wes Hopkins to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead over Claremont. Undeterred, CMS responded forcefully with three straight goals to end the first quarter 3-1. The scoring would reverse, as Hopkins swam out of the gates to notch three unanswered goals in the second period on a hat trick from freshman Matt Fraser. Claremont scored one last goal in the dying seconds of the quarter to tie up the game at half.
Both teams swapped goals in the third quarter to make the tie stand. Claremont and Hopkins again went one for one with about seven minutes left to play, but then CMS earned the go-ahead goal with just under six minutes left. Despite the generous clock, the Blue Jays could not find the back of the net again.
“I really think that we outplayed them the whole game, and controlled the pace well,” sophomore Erik Henrikson said. “In competitive games like that, scoring on man-up opportunities, or counter attacks or open cage shots can really mean the difference between winning and losing. If we were able to put away the advantageous opportunities we had, I think we could have won that game by several goals.”
With the CMS loss earlier in the morning, the Blue Jays managed to bounce back for the win against Pomona-Pitzer in the final quarter of play. Although scoring went back and forth, Pomona held the lead at the end of each quarter until the very end. Hopkins netted three unanswered goals at the start of the fourth period with about six minutes left to play. The Blue Jays staved off the Pomona onslaught, conceding only one goal which resulted in the final 12-11 score.
Fraser found the back of the net five times in the match and sophomore Blake Range earned a pair of goals, including the game winner.
Sunday morning got off to a slow, yet productive start. Hopkins was down 5-4 in the first half against their third opponent of the weekend, La Verne. It was not until after the half time whistle that the Blue Jays turned up the pressure in the pool. Hopkins went on to outscore La Verne 11-6 in the second half.
Hopkins recorded six goals in the victory to tie his career record. In addition, sophomore Langdon Froomer set his own career record with four assists in the match.
In their final match, Hopkins faced No. 1 Redlands, a team they had not beaten since 2005. After a relatively successful opening period, Hopkins was on top of the scoreboard, 3-1. Over the course of the two ensuing quarters, the Blue Jays would go on a six goal run, to push their lead to 9-1. After trimming the deficit to eight at the end of the third, Redlands opened the final quarter of the game with three unanswered goals of their own. Despite the Redlands late offensive push, a stingy Hopkins defense held on to their remaining margin of victory, aided by a goal from sophomore Kevin Yee.
Yee earned three goals, a career high, in the victory. Henrikson recorded 13 saves in the historic match. As a mark of their defensive efforts, Hopkins shut down every single extra-man opportunity Redlands had, eight in total.
“I think our defense was really strong in this game because we did a great job of not letting them move the ball around the perimeter easily,” Henrikson said. “It also helped that our center defenders, Garrett Davidson and Giovanni Cragnotti really shut down their center players, forcing them to take more difficult shots from the outside.”
Although Yee and a few notable others tallied numerous goals in big games, Yee cites the depth of the team as the overall cause of a victorious weekend.
“Our team is one of the most balanced and deep teams that I have ever played on. That’s what makes us difficult to beat,” Yee said. “We’ve had several games where seven or eight guys have scored goals. Our opponents can’t afford to commit too many people to shut down one of my teammates because everyone on the team can score when given the opportunity.”
12 of 16 total field players for the Blue Jays contributed to the weekend’s success by scoring at least one goal.
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