No. 18 Men’s Water Polo Seniors Set for Final NWPC Championship
11/14/2018 10:53:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The three members of No. 18 Brown University men's water polo's Class of 2019 – Travis Bouscaren, Spencer Carroll, and Santiago Nunez – will compete in their final conference championship event this weekend as the Bears host the 2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
The trio has helped the Bears win 84 games over the last four years and played roles in the program winning the 2015 CWPA Northern Division regular season and tournament titles as well as the 2016 NWPC regular season championship. The three of them and the rest of the Bears now have the opportunity to compete for a conference championship in their home pool.
"There is a huge home pool advantage," Bouscaren said. "We are going to have a lot of friends and fellow athletes come out and support us. It's always fun to play at home. We get to sleep in our own beds, have a team breakfast in the morning, and be in our home locker room. We want to make Brown proud."
In a tournament that features No. 12 Harvard and No. 17 Princeton in addition to strong programs from St. Francis Brooklyn, MIT, and Iona, the Bears know that they will face a high level of competition.
"This league used to be a little top heavy, and now we are at a point where everyone is very competitive," Nunez said. "Anyone can win any game. It really matters who brings the most energy and intensity. Right now, we are focused on MIT. We have our blinders setup on them. We just have to prepare the most we can and leave it all in the pool."
No. 4 seed Brown opens up the tournament with a first-round match-up against No. 5 seed MIT on Friday at 4:00 p.m. (ESPN+). During the regular season, the Bears and Engineers played in a pair of overtime contests with Brown emerging with victories in both games.
"I've been playing water polo for 15 years, and that experience takes all the stress out of it," Carroll said. "We have been put in championship environments before, and it allows us to take stress off of our freshmen and sophomores."
Not only do the Bears have experience playing in championship environments, they also have played in dozens of close games. This season alone, Brown has competed in 12 games that have been decided by one or two goals in regulation or gone to overtime. Last year, they competed in 22 such games.
"The experience of playing in close games plays a big factor," Nunez said. "We have been in that situation before whether it is in the preseason, early in the season, or late in the season, we have been through it. We can remind ourselves that we have been here before and have done it. We just take it in stride and see where the game leads us."
The Bears have developed as a unit over the course of the season into a team that completed a weekend sweep of then-No. 7 Harvard, MIT, and then-No. 12 Princeton in early October and posted a 3-1 record in late October at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament in Santa Clara, Calif.
"This year's team has grown the most," Carroll said. "Going to California in late October, we had a few injuries, and the freshmen stepped up in leaps and bounds. The sophomores have filled roles throughout the entire year, and the juniors have lined up with us as seniors as the leaders of the team. This team has grown the most during my four years at Brown."
For Bouscaren – a Neuroscience concentrator from Cambridge, Mass. – Carroll – an Engineering concentrator from Newport Beach, Calif. – and Nunez – an Economics concentrator from Miami, Fla. – the apex of that development will come at this weekend's championship. Under the guidance of 12th-year head coach Felix Mercado, the group will keep its focus on Friday's game against MIT.
"We just need to be in the mindset that we are only playing one game per day," Bouscaren said. "When we show up that morning, all we need to think about is that we are playing MIT next. We just need to focus on the first sprint vs. MIT and leave it all in the pool. Coach Mercado does a great job of making sure we are ready to give it all we've got."
While each of the members of the Class of 2019 came to Brown from different corners of the country, they have grown together over the last four years in a program that will connect them for the rest of their lives as the group prepares for one final run at the NWPC Championship.
The trio has helped the Bears win 84 games over the last four years and played roles in the program winning the 2015 CWPA Northern Division regular season and tournament titles as well as the 2016 NWPC regular season championship. The three of them and the rest of the Bears now have the opportunity to compete for a conference championship in their home pool.
"There is a huge home pool advantage," Bouscaren said. "We are going to have a lot of friends and fellow athletes come out and support us. It's always fun to play at home. We get to sleep in our own beds, have a team breakfast in the morning, and be in our home locker room. We want to make Brown proud."
In a tournament that features No. 12 Harvard and No. 17 Princeton in addition to strong programs from St. Francis Brooklyn, MIT, and Iona, the Bears know that they will face a high level of competition.
"This league used to be a little top heavy, and now we are at a point where everyone is very competitive," Nunez said. "Anyone can win any game. It really matters who brings the most energy and intensity. Right now, we are focused on MIT. We have our blinders setup on them. We just have to prepare the most we can and leave it all in the pool."
No. 4 seed Brown opens up the tournament with a first-round match-up against No. 5 seed MIT on Friday at 4:00 p.m. (ESPN+). During the regular season, the Bears and Engineers played in a pair of overtime contests with Brown emerging with victories in both games.
"I've been playing water polo for 15 years, and that experience takes all the stress out of it," Carroll said. "We have been put in championship environments before, and it allows us to take stress off of our freshmen and sophomores."
Not only do the Bears have experience playing in championship environments, they also have played in dozens of close games. This season alone, Brown has competed in 12 games that have been decided by one or two goals in regulation or gone to overtime. Last year, they competed in 22 such games.
"The experience of playing in close games plays a big factor," Nunez said. "We have been in that situation before whether it is in the preseason, early in the season, or late in the season, we have been through it. We can remind ourselves that we have been here before and have done it. We just take it in stride and see where the game leads us."
The Bears have developed as a unit over the course of the season into a team that completed a weekend sweep of then-No. 7 Harvard, MIT, and then-No. 12 Princeton in early October and posted a 3-1 record in late October at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament in Santa Clara, Calif.
"This year's team has grown the most," Carroll said. "Going to California in late October, we had a few injuries, and the freshmen stepped up in leaps and bounds. The sophomores have filled roles throughout the entire year, and the juniors have lined up with us as seniors as the leaders of the team. This team has grown the most during my four years at Brown."
For Bouscaren – a Neuroscience concentrator from Cambridge, Mass. – Carroll – an Engineering concentrator from Newport Beach, Calif. – and Nunez – an Economics concentrator from Miami, Fla. – the apex of that development will come at this weekend's championship. Under the guidance of 12th-year head coach Felix Mercado, the group will keep its focus on Friday's game against MIT.
"We just need to be in the mindset that we are only playing one game per day," Bouscaren said. "When we show up that morning, all we need to think about is that we are playing MIT next. We just need to focus on the first sprint vs. MIT and leave it all in the pool. Coach Mercado does a great job of making sure we are ready to give it all we've got."
While each of the members of the Class of 2019 came to Brown from different corners of the country, they have grown together over the last four years in a program that will connect them for the rest of their lives as the group prepares for one final run at the NWPC Championship.
Players Mentioned
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