Courtesy: Cal Athletics
ANNAPOLIS, MD. – Senior Marko Valecic scored a tie-breaking goal with just over five minutes remaining and the No. 3 Cal men’s water polo team got by No. 14 Princeton 11-9 on Sunday on the final day of the Navy Open.
The Bears (4-0) also defeated George Washington 22-10 later in the day.
In a game that featured four ties where neither team ever had more than a three-goal lead, Valecic scored with 5:06 to play to give Cal a 9-8 lead over the Tigers.
Senior Jack Deely added a goal to push the Bears’ advantage to 10-8 before Princeton cut the deficit back to one at the 2:19 mark of the fourth quarter. Nikolaos Papanikolaou’s goal with 1:05 remaining put the game out of reach.
The game was tied at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 in the first half before Cal extended to an 8-5 advantage midway through the third period. The Tigers proceeded to score three in a row to tie it back up at 8-8 early in the fourth.
Deely led Cal with four goals while Papanikolaou added three and senior Miles O’Brien-Schridde had two.
Papanikolaou scored four times against George Washington to give him 16 goals in four games during the weekend. Deely, O’Brien and freshman Jordi Gascon each added a hat trick against the Colonials while senior David Feingold and junior Garrett Dunn had a pair of scores.
George Washington was still within striking distance trailing 13-10 with 3:30 left, but the Bears scored nine straight goals to close out the game.
Cal is back in action next weekend with a road matchup at No. 7 Pacific on Saturday followed by its home opener Sunday against No. 12 San Jose State.
No. 3 Cal 11, No. 14 Princeton 9
Prin 2 2 2 3 – 9
Cal 2 3 3 3 – 11
Princeton Goals: Roko Pozaric 3, Vladan Mitrovic, Mason Killion, George Karas, Keller Maloney, Pierce Maloney, Mitchell Cooper.
Cal Goals: Jack Deely 4, Nikolaos Papanikolaou 2, Miles O’Brien-Schridde 2, Warren Loth, Ian Minsterman, Marko Valevic.
Cal Saves:
No. 3 Cal 22, George Washington 10
Cal 5 6 6 5 – 22
GW 3 3 4 0 – 10
Cal Goals: Nikolaos Papanikolaou 4, Miles O’Brien-Schridde 3, Jordi Gascon 3, Jack Deely 3, Garrett Dunn 2, David Feingold 2, Chris Ball 2, Nikos Delagrammatikas, Jake Stone, Wyatt Mundelius.
GW Goals: Nick Schroeder 4, Andras Levai 2, Andrija Sekulic 2, Viktor Jovanovic, Henry Maas.
