The club water polo team closed its season with a third-place finish at the 2013 Div. III National Collegiate Club Championship hosted at Franklin & Marshall College's Kunkel Aquatic Center this past weekend.
Senior tri-captain Austin Wood continued his dominant performance, earning a second consecutive first-team accolade by scoring six goals in Tufts' third-place matchup, including a hat trick in the fourth quarter, to lead the team to an 11-8 win over Emory University.
"Everybody contributed [against Emory]," senior tri-captain Inbar Fried said. "We played a lot of subs, and we just tried to get everybody in, especially the seniors."
The Jumbos started their nationals weekend with an 8-5 win over Wesleyan that saw freshman Michael Lordi score three goals in the first half, including back-to-back even strength tallies to overcome an initial 2-0 deficit against the Cardinals.
"We started this tournament by looking at [the Wesleyan game] as the only game we had," Fried said. "We knew that if we lost the first game the tournament would be over. We'd ... get no higher than fifth or sixth [place]."
The win propelled the Jumbos into the semifinals in a tough matchup against the 2010 national champions, the University of California-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. Despite various drives by the Jumbos, who twice came within one goal of equalizing against the Slugs, Santa Cruz held out for an 8-5 win, rallying behind Players of the Game David Brunner and Michael LeSueur, who each scored three goals.
The Slugs eventually beat Washington University 13-9, behind tournament Most Valuable Player Sean Shughrou's five scores, to claim their second National Championship.
The Jumbos' third-place finish marks the best result for senior tri-captains Wood, Fried and Chris Langbort as well as senior goalie Steve Lessard.
"I think [Lessard] was hands down the best goalie of the tournament," Wood said. "It was great seeing him end his career playing at such a high level."
The game against the Slugs was especially emotional for the graduating seniors, who had played that same team their freshman year.
"[The loss] was the right thing to happen," Fried said. "It was coming back full swing to play [the Slugs] again and see how we do and try to do our best against them."
Tufts' seniors hope to leave a legacy of strong team cohesion that should lead to future success.
"Usually you see teams in our division with a decent group of players and one or two superstars that really carry them," Langbort told the Daily in an email. "With us, no one would be as good as they are without the support of the other players."
Wood has high expectations for the team next season.
"There's a lot more to Tufts Water Polo than just how we did at nationals, so I was happy with how we did overall, and I think they're going to come out strong next year," Wood said.
The seniors believe that they are leaving the team in capable hands. Sophomores Harry Wood and Calvin Liang and junior Justin Choi, together with a group of underclassmen, have proven their ability to step up to the challenge and make plays against the top teams in the nation.
"Although we're graduating a good amount of seniors, three starting field players and a goalie, I'm sure that the juniors and sophomores and freshmen are going to lead the team to just as great feats as we have," Fried said. "This team is amazing, and the work that we put in this season to make the team like a family will remain for the next few years."
One freshman in particular, Lordi, arguably shone brighter than the rest of his underclassmen teammates this tournament, coming off the bench against Wesleyan to lead the Jumbos to victory and earning Rookie of the Tournament accolades. Despite this feat, Lordi downplayed his individual performance.
"It feels great to win, but it's mostly a team effort; it wasn't just me out there," he said. "It's always tough losing people that are that good - all three captains played a huge role in our success this year - but we should be able to step up to the challenge and hopefully move up [in the tournament] next year."
