While the rest of the Wesleyan campus was finishing classes and gearing up for a weekend of Halloween festivities, the men’s water polo team journeyed up to Middlebury for the New England Club Championship. Since the fall of 2007, Wesleyan has competed in the New England Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) along with fellow NESCAC institutions Williams and Middlebury, in addition to NCAA Division I schools Yale, Dartmouth, Boston College, Boston University, and the University of Massachusetts.

Prior to the New Englands, the 2009 season had been one of ups and downs for Wesleyan. Led by All-American hole-set Andrew Jaycox ’10, goalie Stephen Ranney ’10, and driver Michael Bailey ’11, the Cardinals had high hopes after losing no seniors and gaining six new freshmen with high school water polo experience. However, things did not initially pan out. Over the weekend of Sept. 19-20, Wesleyan endured a demoralizing first league tournament defeat at Dartmouth , losing 8-6 to Yale, 6-5 to BU, 18-10 to BC, and 9-6 to longtime NESCAC rival Middlebury. Inconsistencies on both offense and defense combined with a lack of anticipation on counter attacks proved especially detrimental. For the next month, the Cardinals were staring at an 0-4 record and a last-place standing in the New England Division.

The second league tournament of the year, hosted by Wesleyan Oct. 17-18, offered the Cardinals a shot at redemption in front of their home crowd. In the first game, Wesleyan managed to keep an especially deep Boston College squad at bay through the third quarter. However, ejection fouls hampered the effort as BC netted an unprecedented four penalty shots over the course of the game en route to a 12-5 victory. Wesleyan now faced a 0-5 hole but emerged from the match with a newfound sense of confidence in spite of the outcome. Scoreboards can be misleading, and the team could feel the weeks of hard work finally starting to coalesce. The Cardinals routed UMass and Williams later in the day by scores of 15-4 and 11-4, respectively, and went into Sunday’s game against Dartmouth utterly undeterred by the division juggernaut’s rank as the eighth-best club team in the nation. In what proved to be a nail-biter, the Big Green narrowly pulled away in the fourth quarter to edge Wesleyan 8-6. Nonetheless, the Cardinals took pride in their tenacious play and knew that over this weekend they had discovered a foundation on which to build.

In the first round at Middlebury, seventh-seeded Wesleyan (2-6) faced off against second-seeded BC (7-1), ranked 24th nationally. To the surprise of the Eagles, who had previously bested the Cardinals by eight- and seven-goal margins, Wesleyan came out with guns blazing and drew first blood. Consistent scoring from the hole on the part of Jaycox coupled with a revamped drop defense and a stellar showing in goal by Ranney put Wesleyan on top 5-2 at the beginning of the third quarter. Eventually the champion-caliber Eagles collected themselves and clawed their way back, but by then the damage had been done, as the Cardinals kept cool and held on for a 7-6 upset. With the win, Wesleyan earned a berth in the semi-finals against Dartmouth that evening. Unfortunately, the Cardinals failed to overcome a strong Dartmouth press, and an 8-4 loss spelled the end of Wesleyan’s Cinderella story. A silver lining came in the other semi-final as Yale defeated Williams 7-4 to set up a Little Three showdown for the bronze and for the NESCAC title.

After Wesleyan’s roller-coaster season, ending with a game against rival Williams felt fitting. The Cardinals started strong with a goal off a drive by All-American Ryan Beck ’10. However, Williams responded with a goal of its own. While Wesleyan played fundamentally sound water polo throughout the first half, stopping Williams on defense, setting up multiple opportunities on offense, and essentially controlling the pace of the game, the shooters failed to convert. The score at halftime was 2-2. However, after a team huddle and a speech from the captains, the chips finally started to fall. Brendan Fortin ’13, who had been sitting out with flu-like symptoms, hit the water and promptly scored. Dan Storms ’10 then ignited the Wesleyan bench with a textbook goal from the man-up offense. The Cardinals took a collective deep breath and never looked back, beating Williams 7-4.

“For the first time all season, we played like a winning team rather than a team that could win,” said captain Stephen Ranney ’10.