Bucknell Men's Water Polo Hosts Navy, Johns Hopkins at Kinney Natatorium on Sunday

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell University men's water polo team begins to wind down the regular season with two MAWPC games on Sunday in the penultimate week of the regular season.
Bucknell looks to jostle for seeding on Sunday, taking on Navy at 10 a.m. before hosting Johns Hopkins that same day at 3 p.m.

Bucknell (4-5) trails the Mids (4-1), George Washington (5-2), and Fordham (8-0) in the MAWPC standings, but showed promise in its last outing, traveling to the Bronx on Sunday and falling 14-13 in sudden-death overtime to the Rams, who are 8-0 in MAWPC contests.

MAWPC-East standings
Fordham (8-0)
George Washington (5-2)
Navy (4-1)
Bucknell (4-5)
Wagner (3-5)
Mount St. Mary's (1-6)
Johns Hopkins (0-6)

Bucknell earned its first win over Mount St. Mary's in program history on Saturday, taking a 12-9 win over the Mount at Kinney Natatorium on Senior Day.
Jack Otto made his first start of the season in the win, making six saves while going the distance in goal. Fellow senior Bence Fazekas also made an impact, scoring Bucknell's sixth goal of the game on a nice pass from Andu Vlasceanu.
The win on Saturday over the Mount was Bucknell's fifth time in its past seven games it has held its opponents to ten goals or less before Sunday's 14-13 shootout against Fordham. The Bison are 4-3 in their last seven games entering this weekend's matchups.
Seven different Bison found the back of the cage in the win over the Mount in Jack Lewis, Hasan Mogultay, Shay Gillearn, Josh Yardley, Ethan Jones, Fazekas, and Vlasceanu.
Bucknell carried a late lead against the Rams, but Fordham found two goals in the final 47 seconds of the game to send the game to overtime as the two teams played two full overtime periods before the Rams found the winning goal during the sudden-death portion of the extra frames.
Matt Ryckman scored a career-high three goals in the defeat, joining a list of nine Bison who have scored ten or more goals this season. Bucknell overall has scored 209 goals this season, with the majority of those goals (61) coming in the third quarter. Bucknell found its goal-scoring prowess in the third quarter against the Rams, scoring five of its 13 goals during the stretch as it took a 10-8 lead.
Bucknell gave the 17^th-ranked Rams their toughest MAWPC matchup of the season, as the Rams had won each of their conference matchups by at least four goals entering the game.
Josh Yardley became the first Bison on the year to reach the 50-goal mark after scoring twice against Fordham. Yardley's 50 goals this season are the most in his career for a single season by far, surpassing his previous personal-best of 22 as a first-year at George Washington. Yardley has been one of Bucknell's most reliable goal scorers over the past two seasons, as he also led the team in scoring with 12 goals in the shortened winter season.
Yardley began his career with the Bison against Navy, scoring three goals over two games in the season-opening weekend in the 2021 winter season. The native of Sellersville, Pa. also scored twice against the Mids in Annapolis earlier this season.
This weekend's games will be the final two home games of the season for Bucknell, in which the Bison will look to continue a streak of 19 straight seasons with a .500 record or better at home. Bucknell finished above .500 in 18 of those 19 seasons, including a streak of 24 wins from 2016-2019. The Bison are 4-3 at Kinney Natatorium this season.
Bucknell dropped a narrow 11-10 decision to the Mids in Annapolis, the site of the MAWPC Championships this year, on October 16. Navy scored the winning goal with just under two minutes to go in the win. Bucknell is 33-83 against the Mids in the all-time series, but has managed to win ten of the past 12 matchups in the series dating back to 2016.
The Bison took on Johns Hopkins that same weekend, taking an 18-9 win over the Blue Jays on Sunday, October 17. The Bison raced out to a 7-0 lead in taking a dominant win, and the 18 goals in the win tied its previous season best set against Salem on September 19 (18-10).
Bucknell is 53-24 in the all-time series against the Blue Jays, and has won nine straight in the series dating back to 2016. Lewis and Vlasceanu each scored four times in the win in Baltimore earlier this season.
Bucknell will have one more game after this weekend's fixtures, a road contest at Mount St. Mary's on Sunday, November 14. The Bison will then head to Annapolis for the MAWPC Championship scheduled for Friday, November 19-Sunday, November 21.

Bucknell Men's Water Polo Hosts Navy, Johns Hopkins at Kinney Natatorium on Sunday

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Players Mentioned

Bence Fazekas

Shay Gillearn

Ethan Jones

Jack Lewis

Hasan Mogultay

Jack Otto

Matt Ryckman

Andu Vlasceanu

Josh Yardley