Men's Water Polo Advances to Southern Semifinals With Win

Courtesy: Princeton Athletic Communications
Release: 11/04/2011

Courtesy: Beverly Schaefer

Jeff Cole returned to the Princeton lineup in Friday's win.

PRINCETON (11/4/11) - The 15th-ranked Princeton men's water polo team opened its defense of the Southern Championship with a 16-5 win in its opening game of the tournament over Washington & Jefferson. The top-seed Tigers opened up a 10-0 lead at the half to cruise into tomorrow's semifinals.

Princeton got contributions from its full roster with 13 Tigers scoring goals in the win. Matt Weber led the charge with three goals in the win, while Constantine Nakos scored twice and 11 others added single goals. Kurt Buchbinder and Matt Pugliese each had two assists in the game, while David Aynat had a team-high three steals. Senior Jeff Cole, playing in his first game of the season after missing the first 25 with an injury, drew a team-best three ejections.

The Tigers improve to 19-7 overall with the win and move on to tomorrow's Southern semifinals. The Tigers will play at 4:15 tomorrow afternoon against the winner of Bracket D, which features George Washington, Johns Hopkins and Gannon. Also, by advancing to the semifinals, Princeton has earned a spot in the CWPA Eastern Championships in two weeks at Harvard.

Princeton 7 3 4 2 - 16
Wash & Jeff 0 0 2 3 - 5

Goals: Weber 3, Nakos 2, Aynat, Buchbinder, Cottrell, Galainena, Helou, Hoffenberg, M. Pugliese, Rafter, Ruth, Spencer, Zhang
Assists: Buchbinder 2, M. Pugliese 2, Aynat, Butler, Hoffenberg, Nakos, Shannon, Tifft
Saves: Amina 6 (16:00), Gilligan 7 (16:00)