Another solid weekend tournament for Tufts' club water polo team led to a remarkable 8-0 finish to the regular season. At Bowdoin, the team defeated St. Michael’s (13-1), University of Vermont (5-0 forfeit), Colby (14-6) and Bowdoin (10-3). The Jumbos’ uncontested dominance of the North Atlantic Division secured them the No. 1 seed at the upcoming Division Championship tournament, which will be held at Bowdoin and begins on Oct. 17.
The atmosphere of competition in the North Atlantic Division is such that in many games -- particularly against lower-ranked opponents at the bottom of the division -- the team can rotate all players in. This weekend was no exception, as every member of the team was able to get into the pool and acquire valuable game experience.
“Our team this year has a lot of potential," senior quad-captain Kyle Allen said. "We have a very talented, deep team; [in fact] one of our previous captains called it the most talented squad he has ever seen at Tufts. We’ve been able to rotate the team a lot during tournaments this year, and in previous years [we've had] a lot of players who have gained a lot of game experience.”
Another reason for the Jumbos' admirable showing was the lack of strong competition this weekend; Northeastern and Bates -- the second and third seeds in the division, respectively -- were notably absent.
"At some points, complacency was an issue," Allen said. "That’s always the biggest challenge with a club sport -- we don’t have coaches, and so you need to do your best to motivate your teammates to be in the pool as much as possible."
Lack of formal coaching doesn’t necessarily translate to lack of leadership, however. The team has strong captains at the helm: Allen, seniors Calvin Liang and Harry Wood and junior Michael Lordi.
Wood has been sidelined with an injury and has yet to take the pool thus far this season, thereby acting as a sort of de facto coach this year.
“Harry [Wood] has been a great leader for us even when not playing," Allen said. "He sets a great example for the new guys and is always encouraging us all to do our best. We’re looking forward to him getting back in the pool in the coming weeks.”
As a club team, the Jumbos do not make cuts and welcome players with all levels of exposure to the game, but they recognize that the challenging nature of the sport necessitates that the first team plays sufficient minutes even while rotating through the entire squad.
"The atmosphere around the team is one of inclusion, but also one of intense hard work," Allen said. "Water polo is an extremely physically demanding sport -- before you are able to play effectively at game speed, you already have to be in very good physical shape. There are no cuts...[but] that said, there are lines that are set in terms of player skill, and even when they have the opportunity to rotate the entire squad, as was the case this weekend, the first line always comes back in to stay sharp and fresh."
Tufts enjoyed the advantage of being in better physical shape than the teams it played against, but this only translated into success on fast break opportunities, where the majority of their points were scored.
"We got away with some bad habits and poor fundamentals this weekend," Allen said. "Many of our points were scored...off simply being in better shape than our opponents."
The team will be focused on communication and good ball movement for the upcoming Division Championship so that they will not have to rely purely on power play situations -- where they outnumber their opponents in the water -- to get ahead on the scoreboard.
“There’s a lot to work on, especially in terms of communication in the water," first-year Sophie Anderson said. "We got away with playing down to some teams this weekend -- yes, even in the 13-1 win, we played down to our opponent at times. We can’t be complacent and get lazy with the ball.”
Although success in the Division Championship tournament is not assured, the Jumbos will go into the tournament as the favorites to win. Should they do so, they will continue on to Nationals, where the team placed fourth last year.
“The team definitely has the talent to contend [for the Div. III national title]," Allen said. "We have a good core of guys who have been playing together for a while now. We’ll see how we progress in the next four weeks. Tournaments like last weekend are good and bad -- they give us the chance to improve all around but don’t offer the high level of competition from game to game that we’ll face in the later rounds of Divisions and Nationals. All those games will be tough, and we will be challenged by them. Luckily for us, we have a very deep team.”
Tufts will be back in the pool at Bowdoin on Oct. 17, taking on University of Vermont in the first game of the division tournament.
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