The No. 19 men's water polo team endured two tough losses against Bucknell and Princeton on day one of the ECAC Championships, but came back the next day to take down Harvard in their home pool for a seventh-place finish overall.
"It was a good weekend because we got an opportunity to give our bench some experience," Assistant Coach John McBride said. "It's still early in the season so these are experimental games. We're seeing what works."
The Bears, seeded fifth, kicked off the tournament on Saturday against fourth-seeded Bucknell. The first half was a battle, ending with the teams tied at 5-5. The Bison focused their defense on Mike Gartner '09 in an effort to force perimeter players to shoot the ball. But that didn't stop Gartner from netting two goals in the game, along with Hank Weintraub '09, Corey Schwartz '10 and Gordon Hood '10, who each also scored twice. Gartner's brother Marcus '12 got one goal. On the defensive end, Kent Holland '11 recorded seven saves. But in the third quarter, Bucknell outscored Brown 4-2, a lead the Bears could not recover. Bucknell finished the game on top with a final score of 11-9.
This put the Bears in line to play Princeton, a team tied with Brown in the national rankings at No. 18. After the first quarter, the Tigers were up by one with a score of 4-3. Princeton continued to outplay Brown in the next two quarters, increasing their lead to 14-5 at the start of the fourth period. But the Bears finished the game with a bang, scoring five goals in the last eight minutes of play and holding Princeton to one, bringing the final score to 15-10.
"These weren't the results we were hoping for," Holland said. "But the mentality of the team right now is to take each quarter as it comes, as a learning experience. We were trying out a lot of new things."
Grant LeBeau '09 led the Bears on the offensive end of the pool with three goals, while Weintraub and Hood each netted an additional two goals. Max Lubin '12 manned the cage in his first complete game and came up with four stops for the Bears.
On Sunday, Brown faced off against Harvard for seventh place and ended the tournament on a high note, crushing Harvard 14-6.
"We destroyed Harvard," McBride said. "That was a highlight."
Weintraub and Hood each picked up three more goals in this victory, while Schwartz and LeBeau each net in two. To round out the scoring, Mike and Marcus Gartner each scored a goal, while Holland logged eight saves.
"The team really came together against Harvard," said Holland. "It was great to finish with a win."
The Bears will kick off league play on Thursday against MIT. In a few weeks, they will head to California for their next big test against some of the top ranked teams in the country.
"We're hoping for the best," Holland said.
