Sept. 28, 2005

PRINCETON, NJ - The Johns Hopkins water polo team won two games and lost one to finish in fifth place at the ECAC Championship, held at Princeton University last weekend. Second-seeded St. Francis won the event, while the Blue Jays entered the tournament as the eighth seed and faced three Division I Ivy League schools.

Hopkins was seeded last in the tournament despite being one of just four teams in the ECAC to be ranked in last week's national poll. #9 Princeton earned the top seed and the Game 1 matchup with the Blue Jays on Saturday morning. Senior John Stover scored five goals and junior Nicholas Seaver added four to lead the Tigers to a 14-5 win over Hopkins, sending the Blue Jays to the losers' bracket.

On Saturday afternoon, Johns Hopkins faced fourth-seeded Harvard, which lost 10-3 to fifth-seeded Bucknell earlier in the day. The Blue Jays defeated the Crimson 8-7 behind two goals each from freshman Alex Bond and junior David Strickland.

The win put Hopkins in the fifth-place game against sixth-seeded Brown on Sunday morning. The Bears had lost to third-seeded Navy 11-7 in their first game and then defeated seventh-seeded MIT 10-6 later in the day. Senior James Singleton scored three goals to lead Johns Hopkins to a 9-8 win over Brown to clinch fifth place.

St Francis won the championship by defeating Princeton 10-6 in the title game, while Navy finished third and Bucknell placed fourth.

Johns Hopkins hosts George Washington on Wednesday, September 28, at 7 pm.