PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In the history of East Coast water polo, a team had never won five consecutive conference titles in men’s competition prior to November 23, 2025, as No. 5-ranked/host Fordham University knocked off George Washington University, 16-9, for the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship at the Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatics Center to become the second team to win five consecutive men’s varsity conference titles (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) on the day.
The first record-breaking performance to shatter the mark of four previously held by Bucknell University (1977-to-1980) and the University of Massachusetts (1993-to-1996) belongs to No. 14 Princeton University as the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion Tigers beat the Rams to the punch by notching a 13-10 victory over No. 18 Harvard University first at Brown University’s Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center to garner the Orange & Black’s fifth straight NWPC title.
For Princeton (23-9) – which adds a ring for the mascot’s dewclaw (“a vestigial digit on a mammal, such as a dog, located higher on the leg than the other toes and not reaching the ground when standing. They function like a thumb on the front paws for gripping”, so a ring for the thumb on creature’s with hands) – the Tigers path to victory was never challenged as the squad opened up leads of 3-1 and 7-3 by the conclusion of the first and second quarters, survived a 4-3 outburst by the Crimson (20-10) in the third quarter and kept pace with Harvard at three-all in the fourth quarter to garner a three-goal victory.
Meeting for the third time in 2025 following a 13-12 win by Harvard at Princeton on October 5 in New Jersey before the Tigers returned the favor with a 12-9 victory on November 9 to lock-up the No. 1 seed for the championship based on a goal differential tiebreaker in the two meetings, the two Ivy League institutions took their rivalry to the third varsity water polo program (Brown) to decide the question of who was the true beast of the Northeast.
The game also marked the fourth time 11-time conference champion (Collegiate Water Polo Association – 1992, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2015 / NWPC – 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) Princeton and three-time NWPC titlist (2016, 2017, 2019) Harvard met for the NWPC title as the Tigers won in 2018 (12-10 W at Princeton) and 2023 (8-5 W at Harvard), while Harvard took home the prize in 2019 (8-7 W at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Enrique Nuno (So., Madrid, Spain/IES Orteg y Gassett) (6:48) and 2025 NWPC Rookie of the Year Taylor Bell (Fr., Tustin, Calif./JSerra Catholic) (5:25, penalty shot) put the Tigers in front to stay as the duo deposited strikes within the first 3:35 of action to place Harvard on its heels.
2025 NWPC Most Valuable Player Jack Burghardt (Jr., Manhattan Beach, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) erased a goal off the Crimson’s deficit by cashing in a man-up opportunity wit 2:59 on the opening quarter’s clock, but Nuno nailed another shot at 1:05 to inflate Princeton’s scoreboard advantage to 3-1 through eight minutes of action.
The Tigers bared their claws in the second quarter as Finn LeSieur (Jr., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) swished a shot at 6:41 to push ahead at 4-1. Dean Strauser (So., Calabasas, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) shrank Harvard’s disadvantage to 4-2 with a penalty shot at 6:42 prior to LeSieur (4:23, 1:13) sandwiching a score by 2025 NWPC Championship Most Valuable Player Logan McCarroll (Sr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) (6:03) to widen the gap to 7-2 with the first half winding down. Jacob Tsotadze (Jr., Menlo Park, Calif./Sacred Heart Preparatory) inched Harvard back to within four by the conclusion of the game’s first 16-minutes by spinning home a shot with 57 seconds remaining in the second quarter to close the gap to 7-3.
Bell (6:44) and JP Ohl (Sr., Greenwich, Conn./Brunswick School) (5:52) surrounded a score by Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan (Jr., Greenwich, Conn./Brunswick School) (6:22) to commence the third quarter and stake Princeton to a 9-4 lead. The remainder of the quarter was primarily the domain of Harvard as Lukas Peabody (So., San Diego, Calif./The Bishop’s School) (4:28, penalty shot), Strauser (2:02) and Burghardt (55 seconds, man-up) put up a trio of tallies compared to a solo Tigers’ score by McCarroll (2:42, man-up) in helping the Crimson catch up to trail 10-7 at the 24 minutes mark.
Strauser wrapped up a hat-trick with 5:49 to go in the fourth quarter by swishing a penalty shot to further shrink Princeton’s lead to 10-8, but the Tigers followed a protest by head coach/Coach of the Tournament Dustin Litvak at 4:39 with back-to-back strikes from McCarroll (4:19, man-up; 3:44) to begin bringing the curtain down on the Crimson’s title hopes by expand the No. 1 seed’s lead to 12-8.
Connor Kim (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) tried to rally the Crimson back into the contest by dumping in a score with 3:35 to go in regulation. However, McCarroll delivered his game-high fifth goal – and third of the fourth quarter – 21 seconds later at 3:14 prior to Peabody putting away his team’s first effort at 2:11 as the Crimson was unable to catch the Tigers by the tail in the closing minutes of the game.
For Harvard, Strausser led the way with three goals. Burghardt and Peabody tacked on pairs with Sogaard-Srikrishnan; Kim and Tsotadze stroking in solo scores.
Player of the Game McCarroll keyed the Princeton attack with five goals to accompany a trio from LeSieur along with pairs by Bell and Nuno. Ohl accounted for the remainder of their team’s offense to help punch Princeton’s ticket to the 2025 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship to be hosted by Stanford University at the Avery Aquatic Center in Stanford, Calif, on Friday-Sunday, December 5-7.
The field for the 2025 NCAA Tournament will be announced at Noon Eastern on Monday, November 24, on NCAA.com. The championship features eight teams from around the country with six conference champions from the Big West Conference (No. 8 University of California-Davis), Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) (No. 5 Fordham), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) (No. 2 University of Southern California), Northeast Water Polo Conference (Princeton), West Coast Conference (No. 9 San Jose State University) and Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) (Concordia University) plus two additional teams to be selected as at-large participants.
Following the championship, the 2025 NWPC All-Tournament Team was announced with the Rookie of the Tournament award slated for release this week following a vote of the championship’s six participating head coaches:
| 2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship | |
| All-Tournament Team | |
| Most Valuable Player: | Logan McCarroll (Princeton University) |
| Rookie of the Tournament: | TBD |
| Coach of the Tournament: | Dustin Litvak (Princeton University) |
| First Team | |
| Kristof Kovacs (Goalkeeper) | Princeton University |
| Logan McCarroll | Princeton University |
| Enrique Nuno | Princeton University |
| Jack Burghardt | Harvard University |
| Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan | Harvard University |
| Jasxon Tierney | Brown University |
| Caspar Lightner | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Second Team | |
| Manuel Diez Teran (Goalkeeper) | Long Island University |
| Dimitris Kratimenos (Goalkeeper) | Brown University |
| JP Ohl | Princeton University |
| Finn LeSieur | Princeton University |
| Jacob Tsotadze | Harvard University |
| Dean Strauser | Harvard University |
| Rick Lundh | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Honorable Mention |
|
| Griffin Tunney | Brown University |
| Lukas Peabody | Harvard University |
| Matthew Mischlich | Iona University |
| Jack French | Long Island University |
| Adam Ivatorov | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Luke Johnston | Princeton University |
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| No. 18 Harvard University | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | – | 10 |
| No. 14 Princeton University | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | – | 13 |
| Princeton Goals: | Logan McCarroll (5); Finn LeSieur (3); Taylor Bell (2); Enrique Nuno (2); JP Ohl | |||||
| Harvard Goals: | Dean Strausser (3); Jack Burghardt (2); Lukas Peabody (2); Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan; Connor Kim; Jacob Tsotadze | |||||
| Exclusions: | Princeton – 11 ; Harvard – 10 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Princeton – 3-for-10 ; Harvard – 5-for-11 | |||||
| Sprints: | Princeton – 4-for-4; Harvard – 0-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | YC – Princeton (Bench, 4:59 left in 2nd Q); YC – Harvard (Bench, 3:52 left in 4th Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Alex Stankevitch, Val Vasilchikov | |||||
Princeton University’s Finn LeSieur (#7) & Enrique Nuno (#12) bump fists in preparation for the 2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship game
Harvard University’s Dean Strauser (#11)
Princeton University’s Enrique Nuno (#12) attempts to get a shot off as Havard University’s Lukas Peabody (#6) pursues
Harvard University’s Tyler Hogan (#5)
2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship Title Game Officials Alex Stankevitch & Val Vasilchikov
Fordham University’s Tas Palcza (#10)
Harvard University’s Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan (#10)
Princeton University’s Finn LeSieur (#7) & Enrique Nuno (#12) celebrate a goal during the 2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship game
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference Champion Princeton University
2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference Most Valuable Player Logan McCarroll (#30) & Coach of the Tournament Dustin Litvak of Princeton University
2025 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion Princeton University
