Water Polo at the National Championships

The Army Water Polo Team competed at the national championships held at Florida State University. The team finished in 8th place of the 16-team field. To earn a berth, each of 15 regions competed internally, with the winning teams earning a place alongside the host school, Florida State, with the field of 250 teams nationally competing. This is the best finish for Army, the New York Division champ, since 1995, and an improvement from 12th place last year. The team faced Penn State for the first game of the weekend in the outdoor pools of FSU. The hard-fought match ultimately was decided by the offensive abilities of firstie Shelby Lee and the excellent Goalie work of cow Jeff Stark, resulting in an 8-7 outcome with Army on top. Motivated by their success, the team moved on to their quarterfinal game Saturday morning against the University of Southern California. Although the team played well, they came up short, resulting in a 12-8 loss for the team. In their second game of the day, the team suffered a second loss to the University of California (Berkeley). In the final match for Army, they faced the University of Michigan. After losing several players due to foul trouble, the team was unable to maintain the intensity with which they started the game, and lost 11-7. The games offered valuable lessons and insight for things to work on in the upcoming spring season.