Despite popular belief here at Wesleyan, there is at least one good thing that has come from Texas: The men’s water polo team took home the first place trophy from the National Division III Club Tournament in the Lone-Star state last weekend. At the six-team tournament in San Antonio, the men went undefeated in four games, beat out NYU for the championship and boasted six all-tournament team player selections.
“We pretty much dominated the whole way through,” said Mike Rogley ’05. “We were really pumped up to play NYU, because we didn’t play as well as we could have in the semis. We came out fired up and they never really had a chance.”
Rogley, the leading Cardinal scorer with 13 tournament goals, was one of three players to receive first team all-tournament selection. Matt Brownstein ’07 and Josh Haley ’07 joined him in the trio, which scored a combined 23 goals.
The Cardinals had their work cut out for them; they needed three victories in two days to advance to the final game. Friday evening, after a long flight from the blue Northeast to the red Deep South, the men beat Trinity University of Texas, the host, 12-5 in the opening game. Saturday’s matches, against St. John’s from Minnesota and Lindenwood University from Missouri, propelled the Cardinals to a first place seed in the tournament. The victory tallies for the Red and Black were 24-5 and 9-7, respectively.
They then justified their ranking by beating NYU 14-8 and taking home the gold.
“It was an unbelievable success rate that we’ve never experienced before. Every time we had a man up, we were going to score, and with that kind of confidence, we knew we would win,” said player-coach Mac Clonan ’05. “We outscored them in the second quarter, and after that the game was pretty much over.”
Clonan received a second team all-tournament selection along with co-captain Josh Tanz ’06 and goalie Mike Molina ’07. Clonan and Tanz scored a combined 11 goals while Dan Devine ’06 added seven of his own.
“I think it’s definitely the best season we’ve had since I’ve been here. We have the best all-around team of the last four years,” Rogley said.
The victory was the second national championship for the Cardinals since 1999, when they also brought home the gold. The following four years were marked by close losses in the championship games. Finally, after four second-place finishes, the men regained their title as champions.
“Most of these kids showed up and started playing as soon as they got to school. Only two of us have any previous high school experience, but with everybody working hard, we’re really a well-rounded team,” Clonan added.
The men head to Williams tomorrow for the New England Championships, their final tournament of the season.
“The great thing about playing this past weekend is that every other team in our league has had a three-week lull with no games, whereas we’re coming off our best-played game [against NYU],” Clonan said. “We’re just now coming together as a team. I don’t think we could be at a better place going into the New Englands.”
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