No. 15 Bucknell Men's Water Polo Makes Home Debut at Bucknell Invitational

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The No. 15 Bucknell men's water polo team will return to Kinney Natatorium for the first time since it captured the MAWPC Championship on Sunday, March 7 when it hosts four games as part of the Bucknell Invite.

Bucknell, Fordham, Wagner, Salem, Mount St. Mary's, Saint Francis Brooklyn, and Mercyhurst will attend the two-day event that begins on Saturday morning. Select games will be streamed for free on CWPATV.com

Full streaming schedule is below.

Saturday September 18:
10am - Bucknell vs. Fordham
11:30am - Wagner vs. Salem
1pm - Mt. St. Mary's vs. St. Francis
2:30pm - Mercyhurst vs Fordham

Sunday September 19:
9am - Wagner vs. Fordham
10:30am - Salem vs. Mt. St. Mary's
12:00pm - Bucknell vs. St. Francis
1:30pm - Mercyhurst vs. Wagner

Bucknell has announced its spectator policy for indoor events linked below, which includes masking for all Bucknell indoor athletic venues, regardless of vaccination status.

Bucknell indoor athletics spectator policy

Full Bison Invite schedule

Bucknell opens the Invite on Saturday at 10 a.m. in an MAWPC fixture against No. 20 Fordham before playing fellow MAWPC foe Wagner at 4 p.m., which is receiving votes in the latest CWPA Poll.
The Bison open Sunday with a game against St. Francis Brooklyn at noon before closing the Invite with a rematch against Salem at 4:30, a team that the Bison defeated 15-10 at the Navy Invite on September 5.

The Bison return to the friendly confines of Kinney Natatorium, a place where the Bison have celebrated the last two MAWPC Championships in their home pool.
Bucknell returns home after a challenging slate that included four ranked teams at the Princeton Invite. Bucknell defeated No. 14 California Baptist 14-10, before dropping games to No. 18 Harvard, No. 12 Princeton, and No. 3 Stanford.
Entering Saturday's matchup against No. 18 Fordham, Bucknell (3-5) has faced six ranked opponents in its first eight games. Saturday's games against the Rams and RV Wagner will mark six straight opponents for the Bison who are ranked or receiving votes in the CWPA Poll.
Bucknell, which has won the MAWPC regular season title in each season since the formation of the league in 2016, is 43-5 in the regular season in conference games.
Josh Yardley currently leads the Bison in scoring with 25 goals this season, with teammates Hasan Mogultay (15G) and Andu Vlasceanu (13G), also posting double figures in goals this season. Vlasceanu, the 2018 MAWPC Rookie of the Year, (89G, 38A) is 11 goals shy of reaching 100 for his career, and is one of two Bison along with Jack Lewis (77G, 37A) to have eclipsed 100 career points.
Bucknell is 48-4 all time against the Rams, with the two teams last meeting on Saturday, November 16, 2019 in the Bronx. Bucknell took a 9-6 win that day with three goals from Vlasceanu to clinch the MAWPC regular season crown. Fordham, however, dealt Bucknell its first loss since 2016 at Kinney Natatorium earlier that season in a 17-15 win, snapping a 24-game home winning streak. Bucknell is 9-1 in Lewisburg since that defeat.
The Bison are 8-1 against Wagner in the all-time series, with the only defeat by the Bison in the MAWPC Semifinals in 2017. Bucknell has won the last four matchups since that game, outscoring the Seahawks 55-30.
Bucknell last met St. Francis Brooklyn in 2019, splitting two matchups against the Terriers. Bucknell dropped a 14-16 decision at the Harvard Invite on October 19, 2019, and defeated SFC 13-10 in the opening weekend at the Bruno Classic in Providence, R.I.
The Bison are 9-34 against the Terriers in the all-time series.
The Bison hold a 23-3 record against Salem, with Bucknell defeating the Tigers earlier this season at the Navy Invite, 15-10. The Bison used a 7-1 second quarter to close the Navy Invite with a win and improve its winning streak over the Tigers to ten.
Bucknell gets into a long run of conference games following the Bucknell Invite, taking on five straight conference opponents from September 26-October 17 before traveling to the Julian Fraser Memorial in Santa Clara on October 23.