STANFORD, Calif. — Making the program’s fifth consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship appearance, the No. 12-ranked/Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion Princeton University men’s water polo team battled No. 2/Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) runner-up the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) to a 15-11 defeat at Stanford University’s Avery Aquatic Center in the NCAA Championship quarterfinals.
UCLA got out to a 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter, and though the Bruins’ lead never got larger than six at 10-4 and 11-5 in the third quarter, UCLA kept the Tigers no closer than three after getting out to the sizable first-quarter margin.
Gavin Appeldorn (So., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) and Finn LeSieur (Jr., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) co-led Princeton with two goals apiece. With his 82nd assist of the season, JP Ohl (Sr., Greenwich, Conn./Brunswick School) finished with the second-most helpers in a season in program history, behind only Ryan Wilson’s 86 in 2017, and finished his career with a program-record 246 assists.
Appeldorn and LeSieur led nine Princeton scorers as Otto Stothart (Fr., Studio City, Calif./Harvard-Westlake), Luka Franuliovic (Fr., Rijeka, Croatia/Gimnazija Andrije Mohorovicic Rijeka), Adam Peocz (So., Budapest, Hungary/Moricz Zsigmond Gimnazium), Tas Palcza (So., Huntington Beach, Calif./JSerra Catholic), Enrique Nuño (So., Madrid, Spain/IES Oretga y Gassett), Ohl and Logan McCarroll (Sr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) chipped in solo markers.
Luke Johnston (Sr., Menlo Park, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep), Appeldorn, Franulovic, LeSieur, Ohl and Taylor Bell (Fr., Tustin, Calif./JSerra Catholic) tacked on solo assists to accompany a pair by Palcza.
Kristof Kovacs (Jr., Hodmezovasahely, Hungary/Bethlen Gabor Reformed) stopped four shots in cage.
Information courtesy Princeton University Athletics Communications
