No. 14 Navy Upends No. 13 Princeton 9-6 for Third Straight Eastern Championship

Mike Mulvey

ANNAPOLIS, Md. --  Tournament Most Valuable Player Mike Mulvey (Sr., Carlsbad, Calif.) and Kevin Bell (Jr., Naperville, Ill.) both scored pairs of goals to lead the No. 14 ranked Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy to a 9-6 win over No. 13 ranked Princeton University in the Eastern Championship game at Navy.

Courtesy the victory, Navy earns the Collegiate Water Polo Association's automatic berth to the NCAA tournament on December 6-7 at Stanford University as the Midshipmen will take on the MPSF, WWPA and an at-large selection for the national title.

The Eastern title marks the third consecutive crown for the Mids as the nine-time titleists (1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008) became the first program since the 1993-96 teams of the University of Massachusetts to win three or more consecutive Eastern crowns.

Historically, Yale University (1972-74), Bucknell University (1977-80), Brown University (1983-85), Navy (1986-88) and UMass were the only teams to win three or more Easterns before Navy achieved the feat.  The last program to have a chance to capture three-consecutive Eastern crowns fell short as UMass won the 1998 and 1999 titles, lost to Navy in 2000 and returned to take the 2001 championship.

Further, the Midshipmen have downed Princeton for titles in two of the last three years.  In 2006, Princeton fell at home to the Mids 9-6.  Last year, the Midshipmen dropped St. Francis 11-7 at Harvard University for their second consecutive title.

Further, Navy is the first host school to win the championship since the Midshipmen achieved the feat with an 8-6 win over Princeton in the 2003 title game. 

Playing in front of a boisterous crowd, Navy fell behind early as Douglas Wigley (Jr., Atherton, Calif.) ripped converted on an advantage opportunity with 4:13 left in the first period.  The Midshipmen tied the game at 3:26 on an blast from the wing by Bell, but the Tigers bounced back with another tally by Wigley at 2:04 to put Princeton back in front 2-1.

Navy countered its way back into the game courtesy the hand of Mulvey who sprinted down the pool and beat Tigers' goalie Mike Merlone (So., Atherton, Calif.) with a shot to retie the game at 2-2 with 41 seconds remaining in the first period. 

Navy's hopes of taking the lead in the second period were torpedoed by Jeff Cole (So., Santa Barbara, Calif.) who rattled the cage with a shot at the 5:02 mark to go in front 3-2.  The margin held firm through halftime as the Tigers appeared primed to capture the program's third Eastern title after taking the 2004 (3-2 W OT SD vs. St. Francis College at Bucknell University) and 1992 championships.

The Midshipmen's hopes of a third straight Eastern title dimmed more to start the third period as Wigley completed a hat-trick by beating Navy goalie Brett Rajchel (Jr., Winter Park, Fla.) into the upper left 90 of the cage at the 7:36 mark. 

Navy sliced the margin to a goal at 5:58 with a successful penalty shot by Bell, but the Tigers returned fire as Brendan Colgan (Sr., Annapolis, Md.) came home to nearly shatter the Midshipmen's dreams with an exclusion goal at 5:35 to put Princeton in front 5-3.

The lead lasted slightly more than 2:30 as Johnny Meiners (Jr., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Jordan Carter (So., Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) pumped in scores at 3:38 and 3:03, respectively, to tie the game at 5-5. 

Mulvey put Navy in front to stay with 1:04 left in the period as he picked up a loose ball in front of the cage and banged a shot over the left shoulder of Merlone from point-blank range for a 6-5 lead with nine minutes to play.

The Midshipmen cushioned the lead and netted the game-winner 1:19 into the fourth period as Alex Kofsky (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) received a pass and rifled a shot cross-cage over the left shoulder of Merlone and into the upper 90 of the goal for a 7-5 advantage.

Princeton came back as Eric Vreeland (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif.) converted a penalty shot at 3:26, but Navy sealed the win with tallies by Kyle Wertz (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) on a restart after a shot tipped out of bounds at 2:54 and a pass from Luke Baldwin (So., La Grange Park, Ill.) to Marek Malik (Sr., Houston, Texas) at the 2:22 mark for the 9-6 final.

Princeton was unable to overcome the three goal deficit as the Midshipmen limited the Tigers to three shots on goal in the fourth period, including none in the final two minutes of play.

Rajchel earned Player of the Game honors following the game for making 10 saves, with five in each half, while Merlone stopped 13 shots for Princeton.

Following the game, Mulvey was named Most Valuable Player of the Tournament, while Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao and Wertz were honored with the Coach and Rookie of the Tournament.  The complete All-Tournament team is available here.

Navy Goals: Mike Mulvey (2); Kevin Bell (2); Johnny Meiners; Marek Malik; Jordan Carter; Alex Kofsky; Kyle Wertz 

Princeton Goals: Douglas Wigley (3); Brendan Colgan; Eric Vreeland; Jeff Cole

Saves: Navy - Brett Rajchel (10) ; Princeton - Mike Merlone (11)

Ejections: Navy - 12 ; Princeton -  5

Sprints: Navy - 3 (1st, 2nd, 4th - Luke Baldwin) ; Princeton - 1 (3rd - Douglas Wigley)