Water Polo finishes 2-2 at New England Championships

With Marco Polo is (unfortunately) unavailable as a club sport option here at Tufts, pool lovers must turn to the next best alternative to get their kicks before the winter swimming and diving seasons begin. While chugging chlorine may appear to be the best non-Marco Polo option, there are others. The Tufts Water Polo team is the other option. This coed group just finished its season this past weekend at the New England championships, where it went 2-2, competing against the likes of Boston College, UMass-Amherst, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, and other schools.

"I am a little disappointed in how we did this year. Obviously, winning is more fun than losing, and we definitely didn't win as much as we should have," said junior team MVP and leading scorer Kaili Mauricio. "We only lost one guy from last year's team. Coming in, I thought we had a better team than last year."

The squad, led by Mauricio and senior captain Scott Hanchar, competed in three official tournaments this fall before the New England tournament. Three other teams _ Amherst, Middlebury and Rochester _ joined Tufts to travel to tournaments. While this short tournament schedule may not seem like much of a season, the team practices five days a week, not only in preparation for the tournaments but in preparation for the winter swimming and diving season. But not all members of the team are two-sport athletes.

"We have three guys on the team who don't swim competitively, and the three girls we have on the team are strictly water polo players," junior Greg Schmidt said. "They see as much time and contribute as much as most of our guys do."

The team had many newcomers step up and play an integral role on this year's team. Freshmen Joon Jun, Steve Ward, and John Godsey all made good contributions, as well as sophomore newcomer Jonathan Perry, who was on the swim team last year.

"We don't have a lot of seniors or upper classmen on the team right now, so it was great to see these guys step up," Mauricio said. "It's a good stepping stone for the newcomers going into the swim season so that they're not too overwhelmed."

Which begs the question: does the team take it as seriously as they take the varsity competitive swimming and diving season?

"It's not as serious as the swimming, but it is definitely competitive," Mauricio said. "We love to play the game, and it's a great way to build or maintain unity before the winter. We have a lot of close guys, and with water polo being a team sport more than competitive swimming, it can help."

"For the guys on the swim team, this is the off season", Schmidt said. "It's a welcome break. But we still treat it as important."

One thing the members of the team wouldn't mind is for the team to obtain varsity status.

"It would be nice to be varsity," Schmidt said. "We would get more funding, more pool time, and more attention basically. We have a 25 yard pool, and we compete against Middlebury who has a 30 meter pool and has enough people for 2 teams. It's just a little unfair."

But the team will continue to strive for excellence. This water polo season may be over, but the team doesn't have to wait until next fall to compete again. A new season picks up in the spring once the swimming and diving squad has finished competing.