Division III No. 10 Johns Hopkins Secures 15-13 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Home Win Versus Mount St. Mary’s University
BALTIMORE, Md. — Sophomore Owen Bartlett poured in a career-high eight points and classmate Alec Baker chipped in five to lead Division III No. 10-ranked Johns Hopkins University to a 15-13 win over Mount St. Mary’s University in Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) action. The Blue Jays improve to 11-15 overall and 3-5 in the conference, while the Mount fall to 5-22 and 3-6 in the MAWPC.
The teams went back-and-forth in the opening seven minutes, and it was 3-3 late in the opening quarter. Freshman Andrew Lee put the Blue Jays on top with a six-on-five goal late in the first quarter to spark a 4-1 Hopkins’ run. Junior Quint Steffey scored to open the second and JHU led 5-3. Drasko Sekaric answered less than a minute later for the Mountaineers to make it a one-goal game.
Sophomore Ethan Babel pushed the lead back to two with 3:44 to go in the second quarter. Baker then scored an ejection goal and Hopkins took a 7-4 lead into the break. The Mount opened the third quarter with a 3-1 spurt and the Blue Jays’ lead was 8-7 with 3:45 to go. Coming out of a Blue Jays’ timeout, Bartlett and junior Jason Mihalopoulos scored back-to-back goals and the lead was back to three.
Alexandros Bellesis and Jack Fox responded with a pair of goals just 31 seconds apart and just like that it was a 10-9 game. Bartlett had the final say of the quarter however, scoring twice in the final 71 seconds to put the Blue Jays up 12-9 after three quarters.
The fourth quarter was just like the first as the teams went back-and-forth. An Aaron Tarr six-on-five goal made it a 14-12 game with 1:46 to play. Freshman Patrick Rooney answered on the other end, staking Hopkins to a 15-12 lead with 1:16 on the clock. Tarr would score one more for the Mount with five ticks on the clock, to make it a 15-13 final.
Bartlett finished with five goals and three assists for a career-high eight points. Baker scored twice and handed out three assists for five points, including the 100th point of his career. Mihalopoulos added four points (three goals, one assist), while freshman Phillip Long (one goal, two assists) and junior Daniel Palfi (three assists) had three points each. Senior Kyle Pearson finished with eight saves and two steals in the cage.
Release courtesy Johns Hopkins University Athletics Communications
