Bucknell University Athletics
Southern Championships Next on Men's Water Polo Schedule
11/6/2014 9:19:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell men's water polo team begins its postseason this weekend at the Southern Championships. Princeton's DeNunzio Pool will host the 11-team, three-day tournament. The Bison (12-7, 4-4 CWPA) are the third seed in the field and will open competition Friday at 7:30 p.m. against sixth-seeded Washington & Jefferson (12-12).
The 11-team tournament is broken up into four brackets. Each bracket plays a round-robin within itself and the top team in each bracket earns a berth in Saturday afternoon's semifinals. Tenth-seeded Monmouth (3-7) is the other team in Bucknell's bracket and they will meet Saturday at 10:15 a.m. Saturday's semifinals are slated for 3:20 p.m. and 4:40 p.m., while Sunday's championship game is at 2:20 p.m.
Despite a 10-8 home loss to No. 9 Princeton last Saturday, the Bison enter the postseason on a hot streak, having won seven of their last eight games to climb into a tie for 12th in the national rankings. Bucknell is 12-7 on the year with seven of those wins against nationally ranked foes.
The Bison have advanced to the Southern Championships title game in three of the last four years, winning their first crown in 2012. Last year, Bucknell lost to host Navy by one goal in the championship game.
The top five teams at the Southern Championships will earn automatic berths to the CWPA Championship, which will take place in two weeks in Annapolis, Maryland, and will decide the conference's automatic NCAA bid. The Northern Championships will have three automatic berths to the CWPA Championship, while there are also four at-large selections.
Junior Stefan Aleksic leads Bucknell in points with 64 this year. Freshman Grant Curry paces the team in goals with 27, and he has 10 multi-goal outings in the last 12 games, while junior Nick Hale has piled up a team-high 32 assists, including 16 over the last seven contests.
Senior Keegan Williams is solidly in control of eighth place on the program's all-time saves list with 424, including a team-high 168 this year. He has posted eight double-figure save outings this fall.
Freshman Nate Hunter's 49 ejections drawn are the most by a Bison player this year and that figure ranks 10th on the program's single-season ledger.
Bucknell All-Time vs. Opponents in Bracket
Bucknell vs. Washington & Jefferson: 15-0 (Bucknell won this year's regular-season meeting 13-7 in mid-September)
Bucknell vs. Monmouth: 0-0 (first meeting)
Bucknell's Weekly Awards in 2014
CWPA Player of the Week: Nick Hale (Oct. 9), Stefan Aleksic (Oct. 27)
CWPA Defensive Player of the Week: Keegan Williams (Oct. 27)
CWPA Rookie of the Week: Grant Curry (Oct. 2, Oct. 27), Jeff Hagen (Oct. 9)
Bison Athlete of the Week: Stefan Aleksic (Oct. 27)
Bucknell in National Rankings in 2014
Week of Oct. 8: No. 19
Week of Oct. 29: No. 12
Week of Nov. 5: t-No. 12
