Oct. 29, 2006
LEWISBURG, PA - The Johns Hopkins water polo team (14-14) lost to #18 Bucknell 8-5 in the third place game at the Southern Championships Sunday. The Blue Jays, which finished fourth, advance to the 2006 Eastern Championships in Princeton, NJ the weekend of November 11-12.
Bucknell limited Hopkins to just one goal in the first 10-plus minutes of play as it built a 5-1 lead behind two goals from Mark Masterson and single scores from Sean Robinson, Kyle Roslyn and Josh Sunday. Two of those goals came on 6-on-5 opportunities, while Masterson's second was on a penalty shot, his fourth in two games.
The Bison offense then went cold, netting just one goal in a stretch of more than 17 minutes. In fact, neither team found the back of the net in the scoreless third quarter. During Bucknell's scoreless stretch Johns Hopkins narrowed the score to 6-5 with a pair of goals in the opening minute of the fourth stanza. That prompted the Bison head coach to return his starters to the pool and Jason Rechel and Sunday registered goals in the final minutes to seal the win.
Junior Sean McCreery (Pleasant Hill, CA/ De La Salle) led Hopkins with three goals, while sophomore Peter Davis (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) and junior Joey Jankiewicz (Coronado, CA/ Coronado) had one each. McCreery, who now has 78 goals on the season, is just four shy of his total from a year ago. In 2005, he was named a First Team All-American and the AWPCA Division III Player of the Year.
By virtue of finishing fourth at the Southern Championships the Blue Jays will advance to the Eastern Championship in two weeks in Princeton, N.J. The top four teams at Southerns automatically advance. In addition to Hopkins, Bucknell, #12 Navy and #15 Princeton will advance to Easterns. This is the first time since the 2002 season that Hopkins has advanced to the Eastern Championships. That season, the Blue Jays finished seventh, their highest finish ever. Hopkins made four consecutive trips to Easterns from 1999 to 2002.
Game 13: No. 18 Bucknell 8, Johns Hopkins 5 (Third Place)
Johns Hopkins 1 2 0 2 -- 5
Bucknell 3 3 0 2 -- 8
Johns Hopkins Goals: McCreery (3), Davis, Jankiewicz.
Bucknell Goals: Sunday (3), Masterson (2), Robinson, Rechel, Roslyn.
