CLUBS ROUNDUP: Water Polo 4th at nationals

The stage was set Nov. 6 for a classic showdown between an overachieving Penn water polo club and Army, the defending champions, for the national title. Penn headed into Buffalo, N.Y., for nationals with a No. 4 national ranking and a 12-game winning streak. The team's first opponent was No. 5 Purdue, a team the Quakers had never seen play before. Before the game, "the team was tense because we didn't know what to expect," according to junior John Dwight. In the first period Penn took an early lead on the Boilermakers thanks in part to a pair of goals by captain Steve Fallon. "The lead helped us build confidence and set the tone for the game," Fallon said. Penn's strong defense rose to the occasion from there, leading the Quakers over Purdue, 8-4. After dominating No. 12 Buffalo State the next morning, Penn turned its attention toward Army. The Quakers knew the Cadets would be favored. But Penn's earlier wins helped to get rid of any nervous pre-game jitters the players might have had heading into the championship bracket Saturday night. "The tension we felt before the Purdue game on Friday night turned to excitement before the Army game," Dwight said. Unlike the Purdue game, when Penn jumped out to a two-goal advantage, the Quakers found themselves trailing by two goals heading into the final period of play against the Cadets. "We knew heading into the fourth period down 8-6 we were still in this game," Dwight said. Not too long into the fourth quarter, however, Penn quickly found itself down by four goals and was forced to switch to "catch-up" mode. Penn was able to cut Army's lead to 10-7, but this was as close as the Red and Blue came. Fallon thought the turning point for the team came with about three minutes left in the game. "I felt we needed a score being down by three goals and from about seven meters out I took the shot?it was blocked and on Army's counter-attack they scored and that pretty much sealed the game for them." The following day Penn played against Williams in the consolation game. This game included three overtime periods and was by far the most grueling of the four games up in Buffalo. Penn was able to regain its composure after the loss to Army and, after trailing for the first three periods, made a valiant comeback in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 9 and send it into overtime. In the first overtime neither team scored. With a minute left in the second overtime, Fallon, a member of the all-tournament team, scored to give Penn a 10-9 lead. Unfortunately, Williams had a man advantage for the last half-minute. With 15 seconds left, Williams scored to send the game into its third overtime period. The third overtime was sudden death and in the first minute Penn had two good scoring opportunities. Both were denied. Following the second blown opportunity, Williams came down and put one into the goal for the game. "With the talent we have I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to compete for nationals again next year," Dwight said.