Sept. 20, 2009
Box Score
PRINCETON, NJ - The Johns Hopkins men's water polo team used a pair of come-from-behinds to finish in third place at the 2009 ECAC Championships at Princeton University. The Blue Jays have finished in the top three in each of the last two championships, as they were runners-up in 2008. Prior to the tournament, Hopkins dropped a league contest at 20th-ranked Princeton, 11-5.
Against the Tigers on Friday night, the Blue Jays led 4-3 at the half, led by freshman Alex Whittam's (Hillsborough, CA/Sacred Heart Prep) hat trick and seven first-half saves by junior Jeremy Selbst (Old Greenwich, CT/Greenwich). But the Tigers rallied in the third quarter, outscoring the Blue Jays 4-0 to take a 7-4 lead. Princeton kept up its pressure in the fourth quarter, outscoring Hopkins 4-1 to take the 11-5 win.
On Saturday morning, Hopkins pulled off a come-from-behind win of its' own over Bucknell in the first round of the ECACs. JHU used a six-goal second half to rally from a 6-4 halftime deficit and beat the Bison, 11-10. It was just the second win over the Bison in the last 11 meetings for the Blue Jays. Five different players scored in the second half for Hopkins, led by senior Kyle Gertridge (Gunn Prep, CA /Paolo Alto), who had a pair. Whittam scored the game-winner, his only goal of the game, with just 30 ticks on the clock.
Hopkins then ran into a tough Navy team, ranked 13th in the country. The Midshipmen outscored the Blue Jays 11-3 over the second and third quarters to turn a 2-1 game into a 13-4 game. JHU would rally in the fourth, with three goals to Navy's one, but it wasn't enough in the 14-7 loss. Gertridge and sophomore Mark Strickland (Houston, TX/Strake Jesuit) led the Blue Jays with a pair of goals each.
The loss to Navy slid JHU into a match-up with 16th-ranked Brown in the third-place match. Hopkins led 3-2 after the first quarter, but Brown came back in the second to take a 4-3 lead at the half. The two teams exploded for a combined 10 goals in the third quarter as the Bears seemed to be in control with a 10-7 lead heading into the final stanza. The Blue Jays got goals from freshman Ross Schofield (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) and junior John Barrett (Clarendon Hills, IL/Fenwick) to cut the deficit to one at 10-9. But a Svetozar Stefanovic goal pushed the Bears lead back to two with 5:15 left. Hopkins responded with three unanswered goals to take a 12-11 lead with three minutes remaining. With 2:26 left, Stefanovic struck again for the Bears, knotting the score at 12-12. Whittam came through for the Blue Jays, scoring the game-winner just 36 seconds later as JHU held on for the win.
Hopkins returns to action this Friday night in a rematch of its ECAC first round game. The Blue Jays and the Bison square off in CWPA Southern Division action at 8:00 pm at Kinney Natatorium.
