CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Tournament Most Valuable Player Roko Pozaric (Jr., Zagreb, Croatia/Gimnaija Titusa Brezovackog) scored five times – including pairs in the first and second quarters to stake his team to a lead which it never relinquished – and goalkeeper Kristof Kovacs (Fr., Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary/Bethlen Gabor Reformed) stopped 15 shots as No. 6-ranked Princeton University topped tournament host/No. 11 Harvard University, 8-5, in the 2023 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship game.
Competing at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool, the Tigers made their opponent’s tank their own from the opening sprint to the closing horn by building 3-2 and 5-3 margins by the conclusion of the first and second quarters, respectively, prior to outscoring the Crimson 2-0 in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter to claim an 8-5 victory and the program’s third consecutive NWPC crown (2021, 2022, 2023). Courtesy the back-to-back-to-back crowns, Princeton becomes the first Ivy League institution to claim three consecutive league titles in men’s water polo since Brown University achieved the feat from 1983-to-1985.
A league champion, Princeton earns the NWPC’s automatic bid to the 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship tournament at the University of Southern California on Friday-Sunday, December 1-3.
A nine-time league champion (Collegiate Water Polo Association: 1992, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2015 / NWPC: 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023), the Tigers wasted little time in going ahead in the game as Vladan Mitrovic (Jr., Novi Sad, Serbia/Jovan Jovanovic Zmag) spun in an ice-breaker with 7:42 left in the first quarter to convert a man-up opportunity and stake Princeton to a 1-0 margin. The lead grew to 2-0 at 6:37 as Pozaric punched in a natural marker, but Mot Stothart (Jr., Barcelona, Spain/Harvard-Westlake (Calif.)) delivered an answer for the Crimson at 6:19 to move Harvard back to within one at 2-1.
Pozaric (4:04) returned the spread to a pair at 3-1 with 4:04 on the clock, but Jack Burghardt (Fr., Manhattan Beach, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) responded for Harvard with a man-up strike with 11 ticks remaining in the opening quarter to shrink Princeton’s lead back to 3-2 through eight minutes.
The Crimson drew even with the Tigers 39 seconds into the second quarter as James Rozolis-Hill (So., Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach) lined in a five-meter penalty shot with 7:21 until halftime to deadlock the squads at three-all.
However, Pozaric returned the lead to Harvard and added some insurance by depositing man-up tallies at 6:39 and 2:21 to stake Princeton to a 5-3 lead entering halftime.
Gabe Putnam (Sr., Clovis, Calif./Buchanan) moved Harvard back to within a goal 52 seconds into the third quarter by denting the twine at 7:08 with a man-up strike to shrink the Tigers’ lead back to 5-4. Logan McCarroll (So., Laguna Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) returned the lead to a pair at 6-4 with 5:43 left in the frame, but Burghardt delivered his second tally of the afternoon for the Crimson to close Harvard to within 6-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
The final eight minutes were the domain of Princeton as Pozaric capped off his scoring by putting away his fifth marker of the afternoon – including a trio of man-up tallies – at 4:14 prior to Yurian Quinones (Sr., Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) delivering a final blow by swishing a shot at 3:22 to establish the 8-5 final score.
A key to the game was the play of Kovacs who stopped three shots in the first quarter, five in the second quarter, a pair in the third quarter and five more over the span of the final eight minutes to keep his team ahead or tied for the entirety of the contest.
Pozaric (five) joined Quinones, McCarroll and Mitrovic in the scoring column as the team earned added to a legacy which includes championships in 1992 (vs. Slippery Rock University), 2004 (vs. St. Francis College Brooklyn), 2009 (vs. the United States Naval Academy), 2011 (vs. the United States Naval Academy), 2015 (vs. Johns Hopkins University), 2018 (vs. Harvard University), 2021 (vs. St. Francis College Brooklyn) and 2022 (vs. St. Francis College Brooklyn) with seven runner-up marks by placing second in 2003 (vs. the United States Naval Academy), 2006 (vs. the United States Naval Academy), 2008 (vs. the United States Naval Academy), 2013 (vs. St. Francis College Brooklyn), 2014 (vs. Brown University), 2017 (vs. Harvard University) and 2019 (vs. Harvard University).
Burghardt keyed the Crimson attack with a pair of goals to accompany solo markers by Putnam, Stothart and Rozolis-Hill. Oliver Price (Fr., La Jolla, Calif./The Bishop’s School) made seven saves in taking the loss.
The three-time (2016 vs. Brown University, 2017 vs. Princeton University, 2019 vs. Princeton University) NWPC Champions with runner-up marks in 2018 (vs. Princeton University) and 2023 (vs. Princeton University), Harvard has now appeared in six league title game as the Crimson also reached the 1972 Eastern Championship (which later became the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship), but fell to longtime Ivy League archrival Yale University.
| 2023 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship | |
| All-Tournament Team | |
| Most Valuable Player: | Roko Pozaric (Princeton University) |
| Rookie of the Tournament: | Jaxson Tierney (Brown University) |
| Coach of the Tournament: | Dustin Litvak (Princeton University) |
| First Team | |
| Kristof Kovacs (Goalkeeper) | Princeton University |
| Roko Pozaric | Princeton University |
| Logan McCarroll | Princeton University |
| James Rozolis-Hil | Harvard University |
| Owen Hale | Harvard University |
| Ilias Stothart | Brown University |
| Luksa Vlasic | Iona University |
| Second Team | |
| Oliver Price (Goalkeeper) | Harvard University |
| Gabe Putnam | Harvard University |
| Gabe Chang | Brown University |
| Mate Tymcyna | Brown University |
| Cormac Stevens | Connecticut College |
| Andrew Miller | Iona University |
| Josep Jodra Munoz | Long Island University |
| Matthew Pryce | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Yurian Quinones | Princeton University |
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| No. 6 Princeton University |
3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | 8 |
| No. 11 Harvard University | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | 5 |
| Harvard Goals: | Jack Burghardt (2); Gabe Putnam; Mot Stothart; James Rozolis-Hill | |||||
| Princeton Goals: | Roko Pozaric (5); Yurian Quinones; Logan McCarroll; Vladan Mitrovic | |||||
| Saves: | Harvard – Oliver Price (7) ; Princeton – Kristof Kovacs (15) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Harvard – 12 ; Princeton – 10 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Harvard – 3-for-10 ; Princeton – 3-for-12 | |||||
| Sprints: | Harvard – 0-for-4 ; Princeton – 4-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | Harvard – YC (Head coach Ted Minnis, 6:12 left in 3rd Q); Princeton – YC (Head coach Dustin Litvak, 2 seconds left in 1st Q), YC/RC (Head coach Dustin Litvak, 2:42 left in 2nd Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Val Vasilchikov, Steve Redding | |||||
Princeton University’s Yurian Quinones (#17) defends Harvard University’s James Rozolis-Hill (#8)
Harvard University’s Gabe Putnam (#6) closes on Princeton University’s Vladan Mitrovic (#3)
Harvard University’s James Rozolis-Hill (#8) defends Princeton University’s Mason Killion (#4)
2023 Northeast Water Polo Conference Champion – Princeton University
