The men's water polo team started off its season this weekend with five games in three days. After a double-overtime loss against No. 17 Cal Baptist on Friday, the Bears headed to the Princeton Invitational, where they took down Johns Hopkins and No. 15 Santa Clara. In their final day of play, the Bears fell to No. 20 Princeton and No. 3 Stanford.
"It was kind of a weekend for us to learn what teams were going to do to us and what we needed to work on," said goalkeeper Kent Holland '10. "We ended up playing some really good games."
For their first game, the Bears took on No. 17 Cal Baptist at MIT, and fell in double overtime. With 3:45 left in the fourth quarter, Bruno was down 12-8. But the game was far from done. The Bears ended the quarter by scoring four unanswered goals, three of which came from Mike Gartner '09, to tie things up.
The teams traded goals during the first period of overtime, but the Lancers ultimately came out on top, scoring the winning goal in the second overtime period.
While Gartner led the Bears in goals, scoring four total, Captain Grant LeBeau '09 and Gordon Hood '11 were right behind scoring three goals each. On the defensive end, Holland kept the Bears alive, tallying a total of 17 saves.
"Mike Gartner played unbelievable all weekend," Holland said. "He commanded the offense from set, forcing teams to drop and giving our guys a chance to score. When they weren't dropping, he was scoring left and right."
The first day of the Princeton Invitational, Bruno got off to a strong start, as the team took down Johns Hopkins with a final score of 12-11. Brown took the lead early, locking in six goals and only giving up two. But in the fourth quarter the Blue Jays gave the Bears a run for their money, scoring four more goals. Ultimately Brown held on and finished out the game on top.
Gartner continued his scoring streak, netting five of the team's 12 goals, while Holland logged six saves. Max Lubin '12 made his college water polo debut after subbing in for Holland, capturing another six saves for the Bears.
With a win under their belt, the Bears headed into their second game of the day against No. 15 Santa Clara. The game got off to a tough start for the Bears, as the Broncos took the lead early with a score of 3-1. But Brown came back in the second quarter, scoring three goals to tie things up 4-4. Both teams exchanged goals until the fourth quarter when, with less than four minutes left to play, Corey Schwartz '11 put one away, giving the Bears their first lead of the game. Two minutes later, Schwartz scored again and although the Broncos tried to fire back, Holland came up with the save, securing the win for the Bears.
In the end, the Bears bucked the Broncos 10-8, with goals coming from six different players.
"That's the highest ranked team we've beaten in my four years," said LeBeau.
On Sunday, the Bears faced off against No. 20 Princeton. The game was neck and neck during the first half, with the score tied 5-5 at the end of the second quarter. But a few turnovers in the third changed the momentum in favor of the Tigers. The Bears had trouble recovering, and finished the game behind at 14-9.
But Bruno was not done yet. To finish the weekend off, Brown took on No. 3 Stanford. The Bears started off strong, taking an early two-goal lead. As the Cardinals came out firing early, Holland kept the Bears in the game by recording 12 saves in the first half. But in the second half, Stanford continued to bring the heat and beat out Bruno by a final score of 12-4.
"It's a lot of fun to play a team like Stanford," Holland said. "It's a great opportunity to see what the best players in the country are doing."
LeBeau echoed Holland's thoughts. "I think we improved over the weekend," he said. "I was definitely happy with our play overall."
The Bears are back in action next weekend for the ECAC Championships at Harvard.
