ERIE, Pa, — The second-seeded/Division III No. 9-ranked Johns Hopkins University water polo team of the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) earned wins over Penn State Behrend, 21-5, and Augustana College, 15-14, of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) to advance to the 2022 Division III Eastern Championship title game. The Blue Jays also punch their ticket to the USA Water Polo Division III National Championship.
Hopkins raced out to a seven-goal lead on seventh-seeded Penn State Behrend. Jack Holl scored at 6:23 in the second to end the Blue Jays’ run and get the Lions on the board. JHU responded with nine straight goals as the Jays pushed out to a 16-1 lead with 2:40 to go in the third quarter.
Eugene Kruger and Holl scored back-to-back goals for Penn State Behrend, but sophomore Ian Raley had the final say of the quarter and JHU led 17-3 after 24 minutes. Graduate student Emerson Sullivan sandwiched a pair of goals around one from junior Paul Gensbigler and it was 20-3 Blue Jays early in the fourth. Will Aikens ended the three-goal run with a strike for the Lions, but freshman Daniel Palfi came right back for the Blue Jays. Holl closed out the scoring with his third of the morning at 2:23 to account for the 21-5 final.
In the semifinals, senior Chris Freese and Sullivan gave Hopkins an early 2-0 lead. That lead was short-lived as a pair of Colin McDowell goals, followed by a Mark Addison strike, gave Augustana a 3-2 lead with 1:43 to play in the first quarter. Raley tied the game just 28 seconds later and then junior Cameron Burns put the Jays back on with 42 ticks on the clock.
Raley then opened the scoring in the second quarter to push the Blue Jays’ lead to 5-3. The Vikings answered with five straight to go up 8-5 with 2:33 left in quarter. Raley ended the run with a six-on-five goal at 2:02, but goals from Joseph Addison and Mark Addison gave Augustana a 10-6 lead at the half.
Raley and freshman Dado Soares scored back-to-back goals to open the third quarter and cut the deficit in half. Two quick goals by the Vikings pushed their lead back to four with 2:10 to play. Sullivan answered at the 1:23-mark to spark a four-goal run that saw the Blue Jays tie the game on Gensbigler’s man-up goal at 5:59 in the fourth quarter.
Augustana retook the lead on a Joseph Addison goal, but another strike from Gensbigler tied the game at 13-all with 4:25 to play. Palfi then converted on a six-on-five to put Hopkins up 14-13, but McDowell answered right back and it was 14-all all with 3:34 on the clock. Sullivan scored what turned out to be the game-winner with 1:29 to play as the Blue Jays defense did the rest to preserve the win and punch the program’s ticket to another Division III Eastern Championship title tilt at Noon on Sunday, October 23, against top-seeded/Division III No. .4 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the history of the Division III Eastern tournament, Hopkins holds 19 Division III crowns (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) in 28 title games with losses in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2010, 2014 and 2018. Hopkins did not compete in two Division III Championships as the Blue Jays’ missed the championship game in 2007 and 2016 by not attending the event.
MIT is a nine-time champion (1991, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018) as the duo of the Blue Jays and Engineers rate as the only active Division III programs to hold a Division III Eastern crown. Overall, former varsity team Washington & Lee University defeated Johns Hopkins in 1992 and 1993 in the second and third Division III tournaments for the only titles not held by either the Blue Jays or Engineers.
The Division III Eastern Championship title game holds significant weight as the competing teams earn spots in the 2022 USA Water Polo Division III Championship versus the top-two finishing teams in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). Slated for December 2-4, the event will be hosted on the East Coast for the first time following the 2019 (at Whittier College) and 2021 (at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges) events being hosted by the SCIAC Champion.
Information courtesy Johns Hopkins University Athletics Communications
