2018 Men’s Water Polo Preview: The Northeast Water Polo Conference

A well-deserved dip in the pool after Harvard wins 2017 NEWPC title. Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo

Swimming World continues its previews of the six conferences that will send teams to the 2018 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Tournament, to be held November 29 – December 2 at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. Look to SW for in-depth stories and game recaps of all the action from this year’s exciting NCAA men’s varsity action.

After never qualifying for an NCAA tournament in four previous decades playing varsity water polo, Harvard has been to the last two men’s national championships—and has great hopes for a three-peat.

But not if Princeton, St. Francis and Brown have anything to say about this.

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The formation of the Northeast Water Polo Conference three years ago—which dovetails with the Crimson’s current success—has paradoxically created both parity and dominance among the top programs in the Northeast. The Bears, Tigers and Terriers have all spent time at the top of the NEWPC standings but it’s the Crimson who have come out on top both years—in their conference tournament as well as the play-in game between the NEWPC and Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference winner.

Dan Sharadin, Commissioner for both conferences, cites parity as one of the strengths in the NEWPC and MAWPC this season.

“The parity among the teams within each of the conferences will continue to make the season exciting,” he said in an email to Swimming World. “Gone are the days when two or three teams dominated everyone else in the division.”

According to Sharadin, who has been involved with Eastern water polo since his playing days at the University of West Virginia more than forty years ago, said that coaching changes will also be a key feature in 2018, including Dustin Litvack at Princeton and Bret Lathrope at MIT.

“One interesting change for 2018 pertains to coaching,” Sharadin wrote. “A third of the Northeast teams have new head coaches, along with three more in the Mid Atlantic schools. It will be interesting to see if these changes have an impact on the standings in November.”

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When his team rallied from a late-deficit to deal NEWPC regular-season champs Princeton a devastating overtime loss in the conference final, Harvard Head Coach Ted Minnis set in motion forces that will reverberate throughout this current campaign. Perhaps the biggest change was one not directly with his program; after two decades Luis Nicolao stepped down as Princeton head coach to take the coaching reins of Navy, his alma mater. One has to wonder if blowing a four-goal halftime lead had anything to do with Nicolao’s departure.

Closer to home, the Crimson’s (#11 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s pre-season poll) win—and subsequent victory over George Washington in the NCAA regional play-in game—have greatly raised the profile of Harvard throughout the tightly-knit community of American water polo. This may begin to explain the tremendous talent base Minnis has assembled, including Dennis Blyashov (94 goals, 30 assists, 30 steals) and Jackson Enright (37 goals, 31 steals), top California high school players entering their second season in Cambridge, and U.S. National Team prospect Alex Tsotadze, a freshman this season.

Alex Tsotadze may be the difference for Harvard in 2018. Photo Courtesy: USA Water Polo / Peter Laurence

The returning cast around Blyashov (2017 NECWP Rookie of the Year), Enright and Tsotadze is impressive. Senior goalie Anthony Ridgley is the most experience goalie in the East (187 saves) and ably backed up by Suri Nikhil (108 saves in 2017). Senior Nick Bunn (46 goals, 21 assists, 26 steals) as well as juniors Charlie Owens (44 goals) and Austin Sechrest (65 goals, team-high 36 steals) will keep the Crimson offense humming.

There are significant losses; both Colin Chiapello (38 goals, 24 assists, 28 steals) and Harry Tafur (16 goals, 58 assists) graduated last spring. Despite these changes, it’s hard to bet against Minnis and his team this fall.

Key Match-Up: Sunday, September 30, at Princeton

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Princeton (#13 CWPA) has perhaps suffered the biggest offseason loss of all NEWPC program; the defection of Nicolao to Navy. After an exhaustive search, Dustin Litvak, a top assistant to Adam Wright at UCLA, was brought in, to be aided by long-time Tiger assistant Derek Ellingson, an arrangement which promises to be a great combination of inspiration and institutional memory. It also helps that there’s a wealth of talent—both new and existing—that will sustain Princeton in this transitional year.

Junior center Sean Duncan (67 goals) is arguably the East’s best, and this spring astute recruiting added more Mater Dei High School players—freshmen Billy Motherway and Wyatt Benson. Motherway will look to replace Vojislav Mitrovic (Princeton’s all-time leader in saves with 1,142) in the Tiger cage, while Benson will spell Duncan at center. Throw in seniors Matt Payne (63 goals), Michael Swart (54 goals) and Ryan Wilson (25 goals, 86 assists)—who will have to compensate fot the loss to graduation of Jordan Colina (70 goals).

The prospects are good for a strong season of Princeton polo (#13 in the CWPA) and perhaps a win over Harvard in this year’s NEWCP title tilt.

Key Match-Up: Sunday, September 2, at Navy

StFrancisBrooklynTerriers

As goes Botond Kandor so goes St. Francis Brooklyn (#19 CWPA). The talented Hungarian—when he’s healthy Kandor (team-high 53 goals in 2017) is among one of the East’s top players—is one of the prime catalysts for a deep and experience St. Francis Brooklyn squad. Last year his team opened the NEWPC 8-0, which included impressive home wins over Princeton, Harvard and Brown, and was a favorite to advance to the conference title game until Kandor got injured in a 15-13 loss at Harvard, dooming the Terriers to a fourth-place finish in the conference tournament.

Because of the NEWPC talent pool, Head coach Bora Dimitrov’s squad may not win it all this season—but they will certainly be among the title contenders. Bogdan Kostic—also injured late last season—still delivered 27 scores and tremendous grit playing through pain much of the season. For his ability to consistently rise to the occasion, junior Will Lapkin (33 goals) was selected for the All-NEWPC First Team, while seniors Nikita Prokhin (27 goals) and Jonas Veazey (16 goals) along with junior Boris Posavec (17 goals) will do their part in the St Francis offense.

The trick for the Terriers is to stay healthy, and replace the one major loss from last year’s squad: Finn Dorries, their reliable freshman goalie, returned to Germany, leaving a void in the SFC cage. Junior Viktor Klauzer will initially get the nod in goal, but Benedek Molnar, formerly with the Hungarian national team, may be playing important minutes late in the season. One other newcomer to Brooklyn Heights stands out: 6-4 defender Djore Stanic, a freshman from Serbia who looks ready to get into the rough and tumble of Northeast polo.

Key Match-Up: Saturday, September 29 vs. Brown

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Last year a telling trend for Brown (#15 CWPA) emerged on the second day of the season, when the Bears battled a good Pepperdine team to overtime before dropping a disappointing decision in overtime. This established a frustrating pattern for Felix Mercado’s squad; among Brown’s 12 losses in 2017 were eight one-goal or two-goal losses. Ideally Mercado’s players learned how to deal with—and overcome—adversity.

Pushing that message will be three seniors: Spencer Carroll (17 goals, 31 assists), Santiago Nunez (14 goals, 10 assists) and Travis Bouscaren (21 goals). Key juniors include Armen Deirmenjian (35 goals, 25 assists, a team-high 63 steals), lefty James Thygesen (19 goals, 10 assists) and center Hudson Rawlings (24 goals, 48 assists).

The gem of Brown’s freshman class is goalie Ugo Piovan who competed for the Greek Junior National Team, winning gold at the 2018 World Championships. Matt Simko of Ramson Everglades is a big body (6-4) to fill in at center for the now departed Rico Burke (32 goals, 59 steals)

The Bears lost firepower with Tyler Kirchberg (52 goals, 50 assists, 62 steals) and Tommy Bush (46 goals, 38 assists, 48 steals) joining Burke in last year’s graduating class. Bush and Kirchberg each took at least 150 shots—far more than any other players on Mercado’s rosters. In fact, removing them from the roster may benefit the other scorers on the team who haven’t had the opportunity to score—meaning that Brown will be in the mix for a conference title.

Key Match-Up: Sunday, September 2, vs. Pepperdine

Iona

Zach Roper (44 goals, 20 assists). Lloyd Quinn (44 goals, 48 steals) and Marc Stauble (36 goals, 32 steals) were meant to lead Iona to better outcomes in 2017—and they did provide almost half of the Gaels offensive output (276 goals) last season. But they’re now graduated, and Head Coach Brian Kelly will need sophomore Patrick Hudak (team-leading 45 goals) and senior Spencer Anthony (10 goals) to combine with nine underclassmen to produce a better record than last year’s 8-21 mark (2-9 NEWPC).

They’ll need lots of help from junior goalies Jorge Andres Torres (197 saves) and Sebastian Van Reeken (168 saves) who gave up 318 of the 331 goals Iona allowed in 2017. Freshmen German Rodriguez, Derek Friday, Michael Feely and Justin Ginsberg will get many opportunities to help lift the Gaels fortunes in 2018

Key Match-Up: Sunday, October 10, at Wagner

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The final match of MIT’s 2017 season was a deflating overtime loss to Iona, when the Engineers blew a four-goal lead to the Gaels and finished in the NEWPC cellar. New Head Coach Lathrope was there for that loss, and therefore cannot be oblivious to the challenges of coaching polo at an institution with some of the world’s smartest people.

Last year’s top goal scorers—senior Clyde Huibregtse (team-high 44 goals, 12 assists), sophomore Evan Kim (38 goals, 17 assists), junior Luka Knezevic (31 goals, team-high 20 assists) and Myles Stapleberg (29 goals)—all return for Lathrope’s first year in Cambridge. Goalie Hayden Niederreiter (171 saves, 217 goals allowed) is coming back for his junior year; it’s likely that Lathrope’s top priority is addressing his leaky goaltending; until he does, the Engineers will be looking up at the rest of the conference.

Key Match-Up: Saturday, October 27, vs. Iona

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Jared

5 years ago

Should be another tough year in the east!

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Michael Randazzo

5 years ago

Reply to Jared

Hi Jared:

Thank you for your thoughts. I agree, and what made this particular preview challenging is that I have a fair amount of familiarity with the East (full disclosure; I’ve been profiling St. Francis players all week).

When I dug into the preview, I was fully prepared to punch holes in Harvard’s lofty status as top dog in the East. BUT when you look at their roster, the talent that Coach Minnis is drawing to Cambridge is impressive. This is not to say that the other top teams can’t win (as was pointed out to me, the Crimson weren’t even the top team in their conference both years and they found a way to NCAAs). It’s gonna be an uphill slog for all the teams—and the fans get to benefit.

Enjoy your season (and please say hello if you see me poolside at an Eastern contest).

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