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Princeton Announces 2009 Men's Water Polo Schedule
2009
Princeton Invitational Schedule
2009
Princeton Schedule
PRINCETON, N.J. --
The 2009 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championships will be hosted by
Princeton at DeNunzio Pool. Last week, the Tiger men's water polo
team announced the 2009 schedule that it hopes will lead it to the
year-end event.
Princeton was 19-10 a season ago and captured the Southern
Championship for the fifth overall time and for the first time
since 2004. The Tigers advanced to the Eastern title game and led
at the half, before a second-half rally lifted Navy to the Eastern
title. The two divisional rivals will meet at least twice in the
regular season as Princeton looks to end its season at home and
advance to the NCAA Championship with an Eastern title for the
first time since 2004.
Princeton will meet at least five teams that finished last season
ranked in the National Top 20. The group includes top-ranked and
defending National Champion USC, fourth-ranked USC, 11th-ranked
Navy, 15th-ranked Santa Clara and 17th-ranked Brown. The Tigers
finished 2008 ranked 13th. Princeton will also likely face ranked
opponents in some of its scheduled tournaments where the games have
not yet been scheduled.
Princeton opens the season the weekend of Sept. 11-13 when it
hosts the Princeton Invitational at DeNunzio Pool. It is the first
of 12 home dates for the team. The Tigers will open the season on
the 11th at 6 p.m. against UCLA. Princeton will also play games
that weekend against Harvard, Santa Clara and Brown. Other teams in
the Invitational include MIT, Iona, Bucknell, Fordham, George
Washington and Johns Hopkins.
The Tigers host Johns Hopkins the following Friday in their league
opener before hosting the ECAC Championships the following two days
at DeNunzio Pool. Princeton plays league games the next two
weekends, visiting Bucknell on Sept. 26 and hosting George
Washington on Sept. 27, then hosting Navy and Bucknell on Oct. 3
and 4.
Fall Break comes during the first full week of October and the
Tigers will make a trip west to California to compete at the SoCal
Tournament on Oct. 10-11 at UC Irvine. Princeton will start the
trip the night before the tournament with a game at defending
National Champion USC.
The Tigers return east for league games the following weekend on
the road at Johns Hopkins, Navy and Bucknell to wrap up the regular
season. The Southern Championship will then take place the weekend
of Nov. 6-8 at Bucknell and Easterns will be two weeks later at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
There is then a two-week layoff before the NCAA Championships at
DeNunzio Pool. The winner of the Eastern Championship, along with
the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and Western Water Polo
Association champions will receive automatic bids to the
tournament, along with one at-large team.
Release courtesy Princeton Athletic Communications
