Brown University
Claremont-M-S
Men's Water Polo Wins First Two Games of MIT Invitational
9/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Cambridge, MA- The Brown men's water polo team (2-0) started off the 2009 season with two great wins in the first day of the MIT Invitational. Brown defeated Claremont 8-7 in triple overtime, and then picked up a thrilling 9-7 win against Redlands.
Rookie Svetozar Stefanovic (Belgrade, Serbia) led Brown's offense against Claremont, tallying three goals as senior captain Kent Holland (Orinda, CA) led the defensive effort with six saves in goal. The Bears controlled the game from the beginning jumping out to a 3-1 lead after the first eight minutes of play. Claremont came back strong and gained a two-goal lead in the fourth quarter, but goals by junior Gordon Hood and freshman Cyrus Mojdehi (La Jolla, CA) tied the game at 6-6 to send the game into overtime.
Claremont scored first in the first overtime, but Ryan Gladych (Corona Del Mar, CA) hit an outside shot with 1:05 left in the second overtime to even the score. In the sudden death period, both teams went back and forth with some stellar defensive plays, but Stefanovic hit the game-winning backhand with 2:16 left to earn an 8-7 victory.
Also adding to the offensive effort was freshman Michael Hartwick (Los Angeles, CA) and senior Zach Levko (Wildwood, MO) with one goal apiece.
Brown got off to a slow start as Redlands gained an early 2-0 lead in the second game of the afternoon, but the Bears stormed back to take control of the game with outstanding offense and stellar play in the cage by Holland to take a 5-3 lead at halftime.
Corey Schwartz led the offense with three goals, while Levko added two and Dean Serure, Hood, Hartwick and Stefanovic each put in one. Holland picked up 13 saves in game two, as his record increases to 2-0 on the season.
“It was obvious it was the first day of the season,” said Head Coach Felix Mercado. “I felt that we had some great moments and some questionable moments, but at least we battled back and finished strong. Kent (Holland) was fantastic and we got great play from veterans Brandon Yoshimura (Haverford, PA), Toby Espinosa (Palo Alto, CA) and Marcus Gartner (San Jose, CA)
The Bears are back in action tomorrow, when it takes on Pacific at
9:45 a.m.
