ANNAPOLIS, Md. (November 22, 2024) – Mount St. Mary's men's water polo was defeated in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Championships on Friday by a scoreline of 19-15. This first round exit means that the Mountaineers are only guaranteed to finish as high as fifth place at the conference championships.
 
To start the match, the Mount went on a three-goal run, with scoring efforts from Aaron Tarr, Drasko Sekaric, and Chrysostomos Valavanis early. Goals continued to come in through the quarter as Zach Fischer and Michael Lemishko put two goals past the goalkeeper followed by Sekaric's second score of the quarter to head into the intermission with the Mount up 6-4 on the Mids.
 
Offensive prowess continued to start the second quarter as Tarr notched his second goal of the day less than 30 seconds into the period. Sekaric followed up the South African's attempts at goal with his third and fourth goal of the day all within a minute span followed by a goal by Alexandros Bellesis at the two-and-a-half-minute mark. These efforts sent the Mount into halftime with a 10-6 lead in Lejeune Hall.
 
At the start of the second half, the Mount conceded four goals in the opening three minutes of the quarter only for Bellesis and Tarr to pick the scoring up again. But goals continued to rain down later in the quarter for Navy as the Midshipmen gained the lead heading into the third intermission 14-13.
 
A quick goal from Jack Fox drew the teams back level to start the final quarter, but Navy responded on their own, scoring the tying goal once more and then the go-ahead goal to put them up 15-14 through the first three minutes of the fourth. From then on, Navy controlled the game while the Mount accrued exclusions calls against them, eventually totaling 19 as compared to the 10 exclusions called on Navy.  
 
Both Sekaric and Bellesis contributed to the team's efforts with four goals apiece followed by a hat trick from Tarr. Vasilije Marinkovic kept form between the sticks, racking up 13 saves across the four quarters.
 
Navy 19, Mount St. Mary's 15

Team                          1    2    3    4    F 
Mount St. Mary's              6    4    3    2    15
Navy                          4    2    8    5    19
 
UPCOMING
 
The Mountaineers return to Annapolis tomorrow, November 23, at 2:30 p.m. to face Johns Hopkins in pursuit of playing in the conference fifth place game on Sunday.