No. 16 George Washington University Makes History in Rallying Past No. 12 Princeton University, 14-13 OT, in 2018 Men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association Play-In Game Thriller

Princeton University-vs.-George Washington University Scoresheet

PRINCETON, N.J. — For the first time in the history of both the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) and George Washington University, the No. 16-ranked MAWPC Champion Colonials earn a trip to the West Coast to compete for the National Championship as GW topped host/No. 12/Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion Princeton University in overtime, 14-13, at DeNunzio Pool in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) play-in game pitting the two East Coast conference winners.

The victory advances George Washington to a face-off on Thursday, November 29, at 5:45 p.m. against No. 2/At-Large selection the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) at Stanford University’s Avery Aquatic Center for a spot in the national semifinals.  The winner earns a Saturday matchup with No. 2/At-Large selection University of Southern California (USC) for a place in Sunday’s national championship final.

Further, the win guarantees that GW will finish no lower than a tie for Fifth Place in the NCAA Championship standings, while Princeton ties for Seventh Place due to the play-in game loss.

Trailing 11-6 with 3:36 left in the third quarter, the Colonials took command of the game to capture its inaugural NCAA Championship win in the program’s second consecutive appearance in an NCAA play-in game. 

Jordan Blosser (Jr., Riverside, Calif./Santiago) ignited the improbable comeback lining in a shot with 2:32 remaining on the quarter clock.  Atakan Destici (Jr., Istanbul, Turkey/Istek Acaibadem Anatolian) sliced the deficit down to 11-8 prior to the conclusion of the frame as he fired in a five-meter penalty shot with 37 seconds remaining.

Andras Levai (So., Budapest, Hungary/Csik Ferenc Secondary School) squared the teams at 11-all with 4:16 on the fourth quarter clock as he put away shots at 7:30, 6:38 and 4:16.  GW went ahead for the first time in the game with 58 seconds to go as Zach Slaugher (Sr., Trabuco Canyon, Calif./JSerra Catholic) capped off a 6-0 run by the Colonials spanning 9:33 from the 2:32 mark of the third quarter.

However, an exclusion against Blosser with 38 seconds left allowed Princeton’s’ Michael Swart (Sr., Atherton, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) to pull the Tigers even at 12-all at the 26 seconds mark to force overtime.

Princeton regained the lead at 13-12 27 seconds into the first of two three-minute overtime periods as Alec Mendelsohn (So., Studio City, Calif./Harvard-Westlake School) put away a shot with 2:33 on the clock.  However, Henry Maas (Fr., San Anselmo, Calif./Marin Academy) erased the lead and provided GW the margin it needed to claim the victory by punching in natural goals at 2:11 and 1:19 to make it 14-13.  Neither team scored over neither the remainder of the first OT period nor the span of the second OT frame to allow George Washington to escape with a one-goal win.

The game’s conclusion was a dramatic shift from the majority of regulation.

George Washington opened the game with the inaugural strike as Nick Schroeder (Fr., Orinda, Calif./Campolindo) broke the ice at 5:51 of the first quarter.  Princeton responded with back-to-back tallies by Logan MacDonell (Jr., San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep) and Wyatt Benson (Fr., Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) at 3:21 and 2:27, respectively, to provide the Tigers with a 2-1 lead prior to Destici depositing the equalizer with 13 seconds remaining for a two-all tie after eight minutes of action.

Princeton pulled away, however, in the opening three minutes of the second quarter as Matt Payne (Sr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) sandwiched a five-meter penalty shot (6:33) between a pair of even-strength markers (7:36, 5:09) to hand the Tigers a 5-2 lead heading towards halftime.

Destici trimmed the deficit down to a pair at 5-3 with a score at 4:10, but the teams exchanged scoring jabs over the remainder of the first half with Benson (1:37) and Finn Lillis (Fr., Gwynedd Valley, Pa./Germantown Academy) (1:14) denting the twine for Princeton and GW, respectively, to set the scoreboard at 6-4 entering the break.

Mendelsohn built Princeton’s lead to three goals (7-4) 24 seconds into the third quarter, but Maas responded at 7:20 to inch the Colonials back within two at 7-5.  The squads repeated the feat with Benson completing a hat-trick at 6:55 prior to Andrew Mavis (Jr., Princeton, N.J./The Pennington School) rifling in a shot 12 seconds later at 6:43 to keep the margin at two (8-6).

The stage for GW’s climatic comeback was set over the next three minutes as Payne (4:37) and Keller Maloney (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) (4:05, 3:36) tore off a trio of tallies for the Tigers to push the lead to 11-6.

For George Washington, Destici, Maas and Levai all posted hat-tricks (three goals), with Mavis, Slaughter, Blosser, Lillis and Schroeder each accounting for single scores.  In cage, Austin Pyrch (Sr., Denton, Texas/Billy Ryan) made eight saves to earn the win.

Payne led the way for Princeton with four goals, while Benson (three), Maloney (two), Mendelsohn (two), Swart (one), MacDonell (one) also found the back of the cage.  Goalie Billy Motherway (Fr., Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei) took the loss with 14 saves, including seven stops in the first quarter to keep the Colonials in check and five in the fourth quarter to allow his team to force overtime.

The game marked the third NCAA Championship play-in game featuring the MAWPC and NWPC Champions.  In 2016, host/NWPC Champion Harvard defeat MAWPC Champion Bucknell University 13-12 in sudden death overtime at Blodgett Pool.  Harvard downed George Washington last year by a 15-13 final in overtime last year in Blodgett as every NCAA play-in game pitting the two East Coast champions has been decided in overtime.

Further, GW’s win over Princeton snaps a 39-game losing streak to the Tigers dating back to a 15-12 Colonials’ win during the 1997 season.  Further, it improves GW to 2-41 all-time against Princeton – with both victories coming in DeNunzio Pool.