LA JOLLA, Calif. — The No. 20-ranked United State Naval Academy water polo team split a pair of games on the final day of the Triton Invitational on the campus of the University of California-San Diego. The Midshipmen opened the day with a 10-9 upset of No. 9 Long Beach State University before dropping a 15-8 contest against host/No. 11 UC-San Diego.
“It was a great opening weekend for us,” stated head coach Luis Nicolao. “The guys played hard and earned an exciting victory over a Top 10 opponent. We fell a little short against UC-San Diego, but overall, I am extremely happy with how we played this weekend.”
Nine Midshipmen scored at least one goal on the day with five notching multi-goal performances. Kiefer Black once again led the team, finishing the day with a team-high nine points on three goals and a team-best six assists. Hayden Kahn led the team with four goals on the day, including the game-winning goal against Long Beach State. Nathan Duchez chipped in three goals, while Sam Collingwood and Tommy McKnew finished with two goals apiece. Michael Heller, Merle Richman, Holden Seybold and Kyle Yelensky rounded out the scoring. Connor Cashman and Aiden Day joined Black with multiple assists on the day, while Ivan Pang and Duchez also chipped in helpers.
In cage, Caden Capobianco and Jack Hightower split time between the posts. Capobianco worked a game and a half, including a complete game effort against the Beach, while Hightower entered the game in the second half against the Tritons. Capobianco finished with a season-best 13 stops versus Long Beach State. The duo combined for 10 stops and four steals against UC-San Diego.
“I want to thank UC San Diego for having us out here,” added Nicolao. “The tournament was a great experience for our team and a lot of the parents were able to attend. Hopefully we will be able to make it out again in the future.”
Tied 9-9 with under 10 seconds to play against Long Beach in the Midshipmen’s opening contest of the day, Kahn accepted a pass from Black and buried it into the back of the net to lift Navy to a 10-9 victory.
Capobianco finished the game with 13 saves, while four Mids – Kahn, Black, Duchez, and McKnew – registered two goals apiece.
Long Beach State opened the scoring with a pair of goals, but scores by Duchez and Richman knotted the score at two-all through one quarter of play.
Black gave the Mids the lead a minute into the second quarter. McKnew followed with a score to push the advantage to 4-2. Duchez extended the lead to three with his second goal of the first half. The Beach responded with back-to-back goals to trim the margin to one, but Black closed the half with a goal to go into intermission with Navy in front, 6-4.
In the third quarter, Heller extended the advantage back to three, 7-4, but three straight goals by Long Beach State tied the game at seven-all with two and a half minutes to play in the quarter. With just over a minute remaining in the third quarter, Kahn broke the seven all tie with his first goal of the game.
The Beach tied the game at eight-all, but McKnew gave the Mids a 9-8 advantage with five and a half minutes remaining in regulation. The score remained in Navy’s favor until Long Beach State netted the equalizer with 40 ticks remaining on the clock, setting up Kahn’s game-winning goal in the closing seconds of the game.
In Navy’s final game of the day, the host Tritons of UC-San Diego managed a 15-8 defeat of the Midshipmen.
Kahn and Collingwood led the way with two goals apiece, while Black added a pair of assists to go along with a goal to pace the squad with three total points.
The game started with a pair of scores by the Tritons, but Black put the Mids on the scoreboard denting the back of the net with his seventh goal of the weekend. The Tritons closed out the first quarter with two more scores to lead 4-1 after eight minutes of competition.
In the second quarter, the home team added two more scores before Seybold stuck a fork in the Tritons’ run. Back-to-back scores by UC-San Diego extended the advantage to 8-2. Collingwood and Kahn netted goals around a Tritons’ tally to enter halftime trailing by a 9-4 count.
Collingwood and Kahn once again netted goals around a Triton score to start the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 10-6. However, UC-San Diego utilized a 4-0 run to end the quarter and spear a 14-6 lead heading into the final period. In the fourth, Duchez and Yelensky chipped in goals for the Midshipmen to shrink the final margin to seven goals at 15-8.
Release courtesy United States Naval Academy Athletics Communications
