Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Water Polo Opens League Play this Weekend
9/23/2010 8:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Sept. 23, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. – For the third time in four weekends, the Bucknell men's water polo will head out on the road this coming weekend, but this time it is different. The Bison, who are 7-4 this year and receiving votes in the latest national poll, will open league play at Johns Hopkins, No. 18 Navy and George Washington on Friday and Saturday.
Bucknell's first league contest is Friday at 8 p.m. against the Blue Jays, while Saturday matchups with the nationally ranked Midshipmen (12 p.m.) and the Colonials (5:30 p.m.) follow. The only league opponent the Bison will not face this weekend is Princeton. Bucknell's next eight games, through Oct. 17, are against league foes.
Bucknell Men's Water Polo Notebook (7-4, 0-0 CWPA)
• Bucknell is coming off a fourth-place finish at the ECAC Championship. The Bison defeated George Washington (21-3), but lost to Brown (11-7) and Princeton (9-6). The performance dropped Bucknell from the national rankings. The Bison had been No. 20 nationally each of the last two weeks after being ranked No. 18 in the preseason.
• Bucknell's fourth-place showing at the ECAC Championship marked the program's seventh consecutive top-five finish at the event.
• Bucknell's 7-4 record this year puts it in position to challenge for its fifth consecutive above.500 finish. The Bison have not finished above .500 five straight years since accomplishing the feat 12 consecutive years from 1977 to 1988.
• Bucknell is in the midst of its first two-game losing streak of the season. The Bison never lost more than two games in a row in 2009.
• Third-year Bucknell head coach John Abdou recently picked up his 100th career win, when factoring in his record as mentor of the Bison women's team. He is now 41-34 with the men's program and 61-37 with the women's for a total combined mark of 102-71.
• Two Bison earned weekly awards from the CWPA on Tuesday. Richie Hyden was named the Southern Division Player of the Week for the second time this year, while freshman Trevor Reitz copped his first Rookie of the Week citation. Hyden totaled seven goals and four assists at the ECAC Championship, while Reitz registered five goals and two assists.
• Thanks to his seven goals last weekend Hyden is now the ninth player in program history to cross the 200-goal plateau for his career. Hyden now has 203 career scores, putting him six behind Scott Mutschler for eighth place in school history.
• Hyden is also poised to move up the career assists list this weekend as he is just one behind eighth-place Jeff Hilk with 133 in his 100 career games played.
• Ten goals is the magic number for the Bison. They are 1-12 in their last 13 games they have scored fewer than 10 goals and they are 53-2 in their last 55 contests where they have reached double figures.
• Bucknell has won five games in a row on Fridays, the same day of the week it will play Johns Hopkins. The Bison have outscored their opponents 55-29 over that span.
• Senior goalie Miles Gilhuly enters this weekend seven saves shy of 300 in his career. He has stopped a team-high 61 shots this season and has been splitting time in the cage with sophomore Matt Napleton, who has 17 saves.
• Howie Kalter, Bucknell's second-leading scorer in 2009, is back in a familiar position this season. He is tied with Hyden for the team lead with 32 points. Kalter has posted 17 goals and dished out a team-high 15 assists.
• Hyden leads the team with 22 ejections drawn this year, bringing his career total to 151. That figure places him second on the program's all-time list, 31 behind Gabriel Heiber.
• Sophomore Brian Barron has dramatically improved his offensive game this year. After totaling 19 goals and seven assists as a rookie, he already has 14 goals and a career-high 10 assists this season. He has also won 14 of 23 (60.9%) sprints, a significant improvement over last fall when he won just over 50 percent of his sprints.
• Jack Else continues to be Bucknell's top offensive freshman with 21 points this season. He ranks fifth on the team in points and fourth in goals and has posted four multi-goal outings. Else tallied at least one goal in each of the first seven contests of the season.
• Five different players have won at least one sprint for the Bison this year.
• Bucknell is outscoring its opponents 87-37 in the first half and 163-85 overall. The Bison have more assists (114) than their opponents do goals.
• While Bucknell opens league play this weekend, it will not be the first time it has faced George Washington this year. The Bison and Colonials met this past Saturday at the ECAC Championship with Bucknell posting a 21-3 victory. Additionally, this will not be the Bison's first trip to Annapolis (Saturday at Navy) as they opened the season facing Vanguard, Gannon, Queens and Fordham at the Navy Open the first weekend in September.
Bucknell's Weekly Awards in 2010
CWPA Southern Division Player of the Week
- Richie Hyden (Sept. 8, Sept. 21)
CWPA Southern Division Rookie of the Week
- Richie Hyden (Sept. 21)
Bison Athlete of the Week
- Richie Hyden (Sept. 6)
About Johns Hopkins (Friday at 8 p.m.)
• Bucknell leads all-time series 36-16.
• Bucknell holds a 12-3 advantage since the beginning of 2006.
• Johns Hopkins finished fifth at last weekend's ECAC Championship.
• Johns Hopkins is 6-5 this year and brings a two-game winning streak into Friday's contest.
About Navy (Saturday at 12 p.m.)
• Navy leads the all-time series 72-14.
• Bucknell snapped a 16-game losing streak in the series with a 12-11 victory at Kinney Natatorium last October.
• Navy, which is ranked 18th nationally, is 13-4 this year with all four losses to ranked opponents.
• Navy lost three of four games at last weekend's NorCal Open to finish 14th in the field.
About George Washington (Saturday at 5:30 p.m.)
• Bucknell leads the all-time series 37-11.
• Bucknell posted a 21-3 victory over Colonials last Saturday at ECAC Championship.
• George Washington finished in eighth place at last weekend's ECAC Championship.
• George Washington brings a 4-8 record into the weekend. The Colonials have lost three in a row, and five of their last six.
Up Next
• After playing 15 games in the first 22 days of the season, Bucknell's schedule will let up a bit over the next few weeks. The Bison will play just once (Oct. 9 at Princeton, 2 p.m.) in the 19 days after Saturday's doubleheader at Navy and George Washington.
