Six tough losses sink Panthers

Author: James Schwerdtman

Homecoming weekend has come and gone, and with it so too has the water polo tournament, in which Middlebury hosted teams from Montreal and another from Greenwich, Conn.

The tournament gave the Panthers the opportunity to face some competition unseen in their conference. Some of the players from these clubs had been on national teams, and a few played on the Canadian national team at the Olympics this summer, even scoring goals while in Beijing.

The tournament was a way for Middlebury to see some of the best players water polo has to offer, and to prepare for the upcoming Conference Championships next weekend.

As captain Kevin O'Rourke '09 put it, "The goal was to play teams that are much better than those in our league, so next weekend at the Conference Championships we will be ready to go."

While the team went 0-6 for the weekend, these games were not those of a typical match. "The expectation was to play a lot of water polo," said O'Rourke. "It's an incredible opportunity lo learn a lot, as some of the guys who have been playing for six weeks had to square up against kids who have been playing all their lives."

There were many highlights from the weekend, despite the losses. The Panthers managed to shoot and score against the backup goalie for the Canadian Olympic team, and many of the players had impressive weekends.

"Our goalie, Erik Shaw '12, had incredible games," said O'Rourke. "There were several guys who also stepped up in a big way - Nat Kellner '12, Peter Hirsch '09, Andre Keiser '12 and Andy Collins '12."

O'Rourke continued to praise Shaw, saying he "can stop just about anything," and "our defense is built around him." On the offensive side of the ball, the two captains, O'Rourke and Peter Swanson '09, also had big weekends, capitalizing on a number of scoring opportunities against admittedly better teams.

The invitational this weekend was a tune up in preparation for the Conference Championships next weekend at Williams. There, the Panthers will face Dartmouth, Yale and Boston University, all teams that they suffered losses to earlier in the season. A win in the tournament would mean that Middlebury would advance to the National Division I/Division II Club Water Polo Tournament. This is something the team has become accustomed to, advancing to this level in two of the past three years.

This year, with many new players on the team, there will certainly be somewhat of a different feel in the pool, but winning the tournament is not out of the question.

"To accomplish this we need … solid team play," said O'Rourke. "We [also] need our rookies and more inexperienced players to step up." The team the Panthers will likely have the toughest competition from will be Dartmouth, as those contests are typically decided by just one goal.

One other bright spot from the weekend was something that really shows the personality and love for the game that the Panthers have. One of the clubs had their B squad along with them, and Middlebury fielded a team of visiting alumni and first-years against them. While the game did not end in victory for the Panthers, the whole team was able to seek out the positive from the game.

"Despite the diversity in age (old and new)," said O'Rourke, "Middlebury played well. It was fantastic to watch all of our alumni play the game and have fun with it." O'Rourke went on to mention "the team … always makes sure to have fun with the game, win or lose."