United States Naval Academy Sails Past Mercyhurst University, 9-8, to Reach 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Championship Fifth Place Game

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Player of the Game Andrew Shashin (Fr., Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) scored twice, including the game-winner with 3:14 left in the fourth quarter, as the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen defended their home port of Lejeune Hall with a 9-8 defeat of Mercyhurst University.

Courtesy the win, the Mids (9-16, 1-9 MAWPC-East Region) punch their ticket to the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship Fifth Place game on Sunday, November 19, at 10:30 a.m. against either Division III No. 2-ranked Johns Hopkins University or MAWPC-West Region Champion Gannon University.

Trailing 5-3 at halftime, Navy dominated the start of the third quarter to even the score and pull ahead with three consecutive goals to snag a 6-5 advantage on the scoreboard.

Conor Sullivan (Jr., Greenfield, Mass./Deerfield Academy) started the comeback eight seconds into the second half by ripping in a shot (6:52).  Jake Haines (Fr., Ashburn, Va./Broad Run) followed at 6:17 to tie the game at five-all prior to Shepherd Warren (Sr., Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall College) converting on a man-up bid at 4:43 to provide the Midshipmen their first lead since a 1-0 margin with 5:12 left in the first quarter.

Mercyhurst  (11-12, 6-1 MAWPC-West Region) pulled even with Navy at six-all at 4:27 via a volley by Daniel Alvarez (So., Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago).  The Mids and Lakers exchanged scores over the remainder of the third quarter with Nate Reiff (So., Wheeling, Ill./Wheeling) and Otis Tyson (Jr., Newark, N.J./Saint Benedict’s) throttling balls into the cage for Navy (2:31) and Mercyhurst (1:35), respectively, to keep the squads squared at seven-all after 24 minutes of action.

The back-and-forth between the pair continued in the opening moments of the fourth quarter as J.B. Lee (Sr., Newport Coast Calif./Servite) stroked in a man-up opportunity at 6:14 to make it 8-7 in favor of Navy.  However, Connor Schmitz (Jr., Schaumburg, Ill./James B. Conant) balanced the scoreboard at eight-all at 4:02 courtesy his own six-on-five conversion to allow the spectre of overtime to hang over the contest.

Shashin exorcised that demon, however, as he found the back of the cage for the game-winner with 3:14 on the clock for the 9-8 final.

Mercyhurst had a chance to tie the score in the closing seconds, but a lack of timeouts combined with a swarming Navy defense prevented the Lakers from getting a shot off before the clock expired.

The final score does not reflect the contest’s early going as Mercyhurst controlled the pace and style of play to dig a hole with the Midshipmen needed to climb out of in the second half.

Following a successful five-meter penalty shot by Matt Skowronski (Sr., Oak Hill, Va./Gonzaga College) with 5:12 remaining on the first quarter clock to stake Navy to an early 1-0 lead, Mercyhurst responded with a surge to collect the lead.

Schmitz tied the score at 4:35 prior to Matt Bachler (Jr., Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) following with 23 seconds remaining to place the Lakers in front 2-1.

The margin expanded to 4-1 less than two and a half minutes into the second quarter as Schmitz flushed even-strength (7:14) and advantage (5:38) opportunities.  Shashin answered for Navy at 5:16 prior to Reiff lining in a five-meter penalty shot (2:11) to chip the Midshipmen’s deficit down to 4-3, but Alec Diaz (Jr., Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona) delivered a power-play point for Mercyhurst to establish a 5-3 lead and set-up the Mids’ second-half rally to victory.

Navy, which now stands one victory shy of recording 10 wins during the 2017 season, received pairs of goals by Shashin and Reiff.  Skowronski, Sullivan, Warren, Lee and Haines each accounted for solo markers, while goalie Francis Kim (Jr., Houston, Texas/Clear Lake) collected seven saves in recording the win.

Across the tank, Schmitz keyed the Lakers’ attack with four goals, while Alvarez, Diaz, Bachler and Tyson all accounted for single scores.  Goalie Andrew Too-A-Foo (Gr., Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago/Fatima College) finished with 11 saves in taking the loss.

Mercyhurst will wrap-up its 2017 campaign on Sunday, November 19, at 9:00 a.m. against the loser of the Johns Hopkins-Gannon consolation game for Seventh Place.  The Lakers have not faced JHU to date this year, while the squad is 0-3 against fellow Erie-institution Gannon with losses on September 19 (10-8 L) and October 15 (16-12 L) in regular season play prior to suffering a 15-10 setback in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference-West Region Championship tournament title game on November 5 at the David M. Hallman Aquatics Center in Erie.

Photo 1: United States Naval Academy’s Nate Reiff (#18); Photo 2: Merchyhurst University’s Brennan Russell (#20) battles the United States Naval Academy’s Gabe Gaspar (#8); Photo 3: Mercyhurst University’s Connor Schmitz (#2)