No. 17 Navy Heads West To Face Top Foes at UC-Irvine Invitational this Weekend

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The 17th-ranked Navy water polo team will face its stiffest competition of the season this weekend at the UC Irvine Invitational, when it opens play on Saturday morning against eighth-ranked Long Beach State at 9:50 am (PDT) at Corona Del Mar High School. The Mids enter the weekend with a 9-6 overall record after dropping a pair of league games last weekend.

The tournament will feature 15 of the top 17 teams in the country, and Navy's four-team bracket includes second-ranked UCLA, eighth-ranked Long Beach State and unranked Redlands. Redlands is the only team in the 16-team field not ranked in the national poll.

The Mids are looking to rebound after struggling last weekend in a 12-11 loss to Bucknell and a 7-3 setback to Princeton.

"We obviously are hoping to go out west and show better than we did last weekend," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "This weekend poses a great challenge to our team and we will really need to step up our game to be successful. We went back to the drawing board this week and I hope it pays off for us."

On the offensive side, sophomore Stevie Ray leads the Midshipmen with 27 points and 23 goals. Senior Johnny Meiners is next on the squad with 26 points (20 g, 6 a), while sophomore Kyle Wertz (16-9-25) and Luke Baldwin (12-11-23) also have over 20 points each. Three more players, Jordan Carter, Chris Vahey and Conor Handley have scored 15, 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Leading the Navy defense is senior goalkeeper Brett Rajchel. The team captain owns a save percentage of 50.0 percent, stopping 85 shots, while allowing 85 goals. He currently ranks ninth on the school's career saves list with 344, needing just 20 more to move into seventh place on the chart.

In Navy's second game on Saturday, Navy will play either UCLA or Redlands. The winners' bracket game will be at 3:10 pm, while the losers bracket game will be at 1:50 pm. Action will conclude on Sunday, with the title game scheduled to start at 5:20 pm.

Release courtesy Navy Athletic Communications