Water Polo Tournament at Notre Dame

The Water Polo team travelled to the University of Notre Dame to participate in a tournament. The ten-man team played four games, where they went three and one. The first of the team’s three games on Saturday was against Lake Forest University; after a tough first quarter, the Army team rallied on the counter and hammered them down to a convincing 15-2 victory. In their second game, against the hosting team Notre Dame, Army faced their toughest competition of the weekend. After a tough four quarters of very even play, the teams went into a shoot-out to break the tie; after one shootout yielded the same result, Army lost in a sudden-elimination round by one goal. After refueling and a quick break, they returned to play Carthage College. Motivated by their tough loss earlier, yearlings CDT’s Shelby Lee and Leonid Milman came out with a strong counter and led the team to a 17-2 victory. After a night’s rest, the Army team came out to face off against Grand Valley University. With a lead secured early on by Firstie CDT David Bennet, and the excellent play of plebe CDT Jeff Stark, the team was able to relax their counterattack and focus on their fundamentals, leading to a 10-4 victory. The ten man roster presented a new and different experience to the players over the weekend, as they all experienced playing with more fatigue and more swimming than they were used to. However, playing these new opponents under different conditions was a valuable experience for all of the members, and valuable connections were made with referees, coaches, and players in the region.