The men's water polo squad continued its trend of having games out West against non-division opponents, as it took part in the Claremont Convergence Tournament this past weekend in Claremont, Calif. The team finished the tournament 2-2, losing both its Friday games but cleaning up after itself on Saturday with some of its best polo of the year, including its second win over a ranked opponent in as many weeks.
In addition to the tournament, the Bears faced No. 2 University of Southern California on Sunday. Brown played competitively in the eyes of Head Coach Jason Gall, but laws of probability reigned, and USC won 11-2. The loss left the Bears' record at 13-10 on the season.
Brown's first game was against No. 16 Brigham Young University Hawaii, which came into the contest having lost three straight. That streak did not continue, as Bruno's sloppy play and mental breakdowns defensively - especially in the fourth quarter - doomed the Bears to an 8-6 loss. Both teams clamped down on their opponents in the first half, and the score was knotted at two to start the third quarter. BYU-Hawaii, however, outscored the Bears 3-2 in each of the last two quarters.
"We just weren't in sync at all," Gall said. "The (BYU-)Hawaii game was not our best game - we were missing some offensive opportunities and not playing our best defense."
Grant LeBeau '09 made his return to the pool after missing the previous weekend due to injury, and his presence was felt to the tune of three goals.
Brown later dropped its second game of the day, suffering a frustrating 8-7 loss to the University of La Verne after two overtime periods. In a game riddled with mistakes by the Bears, Brown was never able to stake more than a two-goal lead. The teams battled to a 6-6 tie after regulation, and following a scoreless first overtime period, La Verne outscored Brown 2-1 to take the win. LeBeau notched another three goals and Graeme Lee-Wingate '06 - who is finally fully recovered from an injured elbow - scored two.
"It was one of the most surreal games I've played," said Stu Thompson '07. "We played terrible. We were kind of waiting for us to break away from them and we never did. We never really started to play the way we were capable of playing that entire game."
Inconsistency still stands out as a problem for the team, particularly on defense. Mental breakdowns have been a season-long issue for the Bears - something that the team would like to eliminate before the Northern Championships in three weeks.
Gall, however, is not alarmed.
"I'm not worried about it, but you'd hope the learning curve would happen a little bit quicker," he said. "After a win, we forget what it took for us to get there. The guys can't think that just because they beat a ranked team, they can forget how they got there."
Thompson believes the problem is being slowly but surely purged.
"You can never practice playing with a three-goal lead," he said. "It takes time for us to mesh together - we were basically a new team this year. We hadn't gotten the attitude of winning yet, and I think that's what the first couple breakdowns could be attributed to."
But as much as Brown was a sloppy, miscalculating team on Friday, it was a disciplined, accurate team on Saturday. Its first match was against Whittier College, "a very good Division III team," according to Gall, and Brown won decisively, 9-6. Gerrit Adams '08 had three goals, complemented by two-goal performances from Hank Weintraub '09 and Mike Gartner '09. Co-captain Jay Fantone '06 also played well, adding 10 blocks in net.
As good as the Whittier victory was, Bruno's crowning achievement of the weekend came in the following match versus No. 17 University of Redlands. Brown jumped to a 4-1 lead after one quarter, helped by two goals from Adams. From that point on, Brown was outscored 5-3 but held on in the second half, shutting down the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter for a 7-6 victory.
The Bears had just defeated their first ranked opponent in two seasons the previous weekend, beating then-No. 18 Air Force Academy in its home pool.
Brown rounded out its final West Coast trip of the season Sunday, traveling to the City of Angels for its match against No. 2 USC.
"We wouldn't have scheduled the game if we didn't think it was a good opportunity. We thought this (Brown) team had potential to hold its own," Gall said.
Brown found itself on the bad end of a shutout deep into the third quarter, after back-to-back 6-on-5 goals by USC, when Nico Fort '09 broke the seal to make the score 8-1. Greg Harm '06 added another in the fourth quarter, and that was all she wrote as USC won 11-2. Brown was 0-for-4 on man advantages, as opposed to USC's 4-for-7.
Brown's next three contests are against division opponents and will help determine its seeding for Northerns. The first will come Saturday against Queens College in Flushing, N.Y.
