After playing against three top-10 teams in California earlier this month, the men's water polo team traveled to Princeton this weekend to battle it out with perennial East Coast powerhouses. After falling to Bucknell 11-9 in the first game on Saturday, the Bears got right back up to take down George Washington 13-8 later that day and Navy 11-7 on Sunday.
"We haven't beat Navy or Bucknell in at least the last four or five years," said Grant LeBeau '09, who scored 13 goals in the three games. "We could have gone 0-3 or 3-0, so we're pretty happy to walk away with two wins and take that momentum into Easterns."
On Saturday the Bears faced Bucknell for the second time this season, having lost 11-9 in the first meeting. The game got off to a rocky start for Bruno, and Bucknell racked up a five-goal lead in the first quarter. The Bears continued to fight, battling their way back to make it a two-point game, but in the end the Bison held them off, 11-9.
"I know we can beat them," LeBeau said. "Correct a few little mistakes and we win the game."
Later that day the tide changed for Brown as the men finished off the day with a 13-8 win against GW.
The Bears led with a score of 7-3 at the end of the first quarter. LeBeau scored four goals, followed by Mike Gartner '09 with three goals and two assists. In the third quarter, the Bears continued to play big, increasing their lead by another four goals and solidifying their victory.
"What was different about this weekend was our patience and our passing," LeBeau said. "Nico (Fort '09) had three great passes to me. Without a good pass there's no goal."
With a win under its belt, the men's team went up against Navy the next day and came out on top, 11-7.
"The Navy game was the first time our guys had gone out and executed our game plan from beginning to end - and it worked perfectly," Assistant Coach John McBride said.
Starting goalie Kent Holland '10 echoed that sentiment. "I think the game we played against Navy was probably the best game we played all season," he said. "Our defense was unstoppable."
And apparently, so was their offense. Though behind 4-2 at the half, the Bears came back with six unanswered goals in the third quarter to get back the lead.
"It was probably the best quarter of water polo we've played all year," LeBeau said.
Navy tried to jump back in the game in the fourth quarter, scoring three quick goals to cut Brown's lead to 8-7. But the Bears held them off, keeping them scoreless in the last four minutes of the game while adding four more goals to seal their eventual victory, 11-7.
LeBeau led the offensive attack with six goals in the game while Gartner dominated from whole-set, drawing five ejections and scoring two goals of his own. The Bears also saw two goals from Corey Schwartz '11 and multiple assists from Hank Weintraub '09 and Fort.
"We have one of the best outside shooters in the east and that's Grant LeBeau," McBride said. "Gartner made it possible to draw the defenders away from the outside and we took advantage."
On the defensive end, Holland dominated the cage, tallying seven saves for the Bears.
"When Kent's having a good game, there are not many teams that can beat us," McBride said.
The Bears will be back in the pool Thursday to take on MIT at Wheaton College for their last "home" game of the season. A fan bus will be leaving the OMAC at 7 p.m., and the game starts at 8 p.m.
