No. 16 Men's Water Polo Wins Final Four Games At Princeton Invitational

Posted: Sep 16, 2013

PRINCETON, N.J.- After falling at host-No.14 Princeton on Friday night, the No. 16 Broncos rallied back the rest of the weekend to win their next four games. The Broncos are now 4-2 on the year. Princeton went undefeated in its own tournament. The Broncos head back to the Bay Area and will play in the NorCal tournament hosted at Cal on Sept. 21 and 22.

"In the morning game on Saturday, I thought the guys did a really god job bouncing back after a tough loss to Princeton," said Bronco head coach Keith Wilbur. "They came out with a lot of energy in both games."

In their first game on Saturday, the Broncos jumped out with a 3-0 lead in the first quarter and ultimately defeated George Washington 12-6.

Junior Mark Davis led the team, scoring three goals. He was followed by senior Theo Nasser, who scored two goals and assisted three goals. Senior Patrick Weiss scored his first goal of the season and had three more assists. Matt Kochalko, Stephen Bilz, Tucker Carlson, Graham McClone, Will Grant and James Rude all put up one goal.

Bronco goalie Matt Pritchett also had a strong outing, recording 13 blocks, two steals from the cage and one assist.

Lead by senior Carlson, who scored three goals and drew two five meter penalty shots, the Broncos then defeated John Hopkins 12-10 in a much more physical game later on Saturday. Davis pulled through again in this game, scoring two goals. Kyle Nadel, David Guibord and Weiss all had one goal. Redshirt-freshman Matt Godar had two assists.

On Sunday, the Broncos defeated the Iona Gaels with no trouble, finishing that game 18-3. Kyle Nadel and Graham McClone each had three goals and two steals. Nasser also had a big game recoring two goals, one assist, two steals and two earned ejections. Guibord and Jimmy Moore added two more goals each for the Broncos. Kochalko, Evan Chang, Davis, Weiss, Grant, Carlson and Godar each scored one goal.

Larry Andrews made his season debut in this game, recording three blocks and one steal in one and a half quarters. Pritchett had 10 blocks and one assist in two and a half quarters.

The Broncos faced No. 17 Navy in their last game of the tournament and kept their winning streak in-tact, outdueling the Midshipmen 16-12. Jumping out to an early lead, the Broncos finished the first quarter 6-1. The Broncos kept up the lead making it 11-5 going into the half. Navy battled back in the second half by outscoring the Broncos 7-5 in the final 16 minutes, but not quite enough for the win.