Sept. 15, 2004
BALTIMORE, Md. - The United States Naval Academy water polo team jumped out to an 8-1 halftime lead, built the lead to 9-1 in the third quarter and then held off a furious rally by Johns Hopkins as the Mids picked up an 11-8 win Wednesday afternoon. The win improves Navy's record to 3-4, while JHU had a modest two-game winning streak snapped and falls to 5-4.
Junior Jim Tripiano (Sunnyvale, CA/Bellarmine College Prep) scored all three of his goals in the first half and senior Joe Snelgrove (Newport Beach, CA/Newport Harbor) tallied two his three in the second quarter as the Mids built the big early lead. The Blue Jays managed just a Brian Mead (Palo Alto, CA/Gunn) goal before intermission, but began to turn the tide in the third quarter and controlled action in the fourth.
Juniors Robert Bates (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) and James Singleton (Los Angeles, CA/Harvard-Westlake) scored both of their goals in the second half to lead the comeback attempt by the Blue Jays. However, Navy goalie Patrick McCreary (Edgewater, MD/Broadneck) made several solid saves down the stretch to keep Hopkins from pulling closer than the final margin.
Johns Hopkins will return to action at home on Thursday night when the Blue Jays host Princeton at 7:00 pm.
Navy (3-4)	3-5-2-1/11
Johns Hopkins (5-4)	1-0-3-4/8
Navy Goals: Tripiano-3, Snelgrove-3, Rollo-2, Ratcliffe, Gentry, Money.
JHU Goals: Mead-2, Bates-2, Singleton-2, Stillman, Sanford.
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