After taking third place behind Lindenwood and host Wesleyan at last season's Div. III National Collegiate Club Championships, the water polo team has wasted no time picking up right where it left off.
With four straight victories coming at the Colby-hosted North Atlantic Division, the Jumbos vaulted to the top of the division standings and currently sit tied with the Mules, holding a spotless 4-0 record.
Wins over Trinity, Bowdoin and Bates came relatively easily, with Tufts winning by scores of 14-8, 18-7 and 17-2, respectively. The Jumbos were led by junior attacker Peter Georgakakos, who garnered First Team All-Tournament honors last postseason by scoring eight goals at Nationals. Junior Ben Mitchell also was a key component for the Jumbos, drawing ejections and kickouts to give Tufts the numbers advantage.
"In [those] games, we won pretty convincingly," senior co-captain Drew Curhan said. "We were able to get everyone to play in those games. In our last game [against Bates], we had a great distribution of scoring: 13 people scored on the team."
Only the matchup with Amherst, which the Jumbos ultimately won, was a hard-fought battle. With a 9-9 deadlock in place and four minutes to play, junior attacker Loren Austin fired two goals to put the Jumbos up for good.
The weekend's sweep erased all doubts that the Tufts squad, which received a first-ever bid to Nationals last October, would be unable to duplicate its success from last year. Though the team lost two seniors to graduation last May, its starting lineup remains intact. The Jumbos return several potent offensive weapons in addition to junior goalkeeper Hayden Reich, who was solid defensively throughout the team's campaign last year.
"We definitely set our standards a lot higher this season," Curhan said. "For all the starters, this is our second season in a row playing together, and we've gotten better this year."
"It makes all the difference, not just because everyone is at that level of play, but also because we know each other," senior co-captain Marshall Somers added. "We've been playing together for a couple of years now, and being able to trust each other in the pool is a huge deal."
The Jumbo team is also armed with a crew of talented freshmen who are ready to make an impact.
"[The freshmen] are looking good," Somers said. "They're learning the game, and they have a lot of speed, which is good. I'm pretty sure most of them are swimmers. They did really well this weekend."
While the team did not undergo overwhelming roster shuffling, it did experience its fair share of changes over the offseason. After last season, the Div. III collegiate club divisions underwent reorganization and are now more reflective of the schools' populations. The Jumbos bade farewell to the New England Division and joined the ranks of smaller schools in the North Atlantic Division. Though the jump between divisions was not a dramatic one, the switch may cut an advantage for the Jumbos.
"The schools in both divisions are still good schools, but in this division, we're more towards the higher end, and we were more towards the high middle in the last division," Curhan said. "This division is a little bit less competitive, just because there are not as many students at each school, so not as many have played water polo before."
"As far as quality of teams, they're smaller schools, so we're matching up a lot better, and that shows in our results," Somers added. "But we still have some good games: Colby is going to be tough, and so is Coast Guard."
Additionally, the club has undergone a head coaching change, with junior James Longhurst coming in to replace Aaron Goldman, who is now working in New York.
"We had to get a coach that wasn't on the team," Somers said. "[Longhurst] is on the swim team, and so he's really close with everyone. He didn't want to play, but we asked him to come in as a coach, and he's doing a really good job. A lot of the senior guys on the team also take responsibility of the coaching, but it's nice to have someone that's outside of the pool kind of overlooking everything."
"He has structured practices," Curhan added. "We're working harder in practice, and we're in a lot better shape. We're a lot more competitive in our new league because of it."
The Jumbos have just one tournament remaining, a Sept. 29-30 round robin at Bowdoin, before the North Atlantic Division Championship, which will determine Tufts' chances for a Nationals berth, kicks off on Oct. 27.
"We want to go to Club Nationals again - we're planning on it," Curhan said. "We're hoping to be competitive in that and try to get into the finals game."
