Mount St. Mary’s University Rallies Back to Clip Division III No. 10 Johns Hopkins University, 11-10, for Spot in 2024 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Championship Fifth Place Clash
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Player of the Game Alexandros Bellesis (Jr., Athens, Greece/Vouliagmeni Lyceum) scored six times and goalkeeper Vasilije Marinkovic (Gr., Kotor, Montenegro) made 11 saves as Mount St. Mary’s University outscored Division III No. 10-ranked Johns Hopkins University 9-5 in the second half to overcome a 5-2 halftime deficit and top the Blue Jays by an 11-10 count in a consolation game at the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship.
Competing at the United States Naval Academy’s Lejeune Hall, the Mountaineers (6-28, 4-12 MAWPC) outscored the Blue Jays (11-23, 3-13 MAWPC) by counts of 4-2 and 5-3 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, to erase 3-1 and 2-1 scoring advantages by the Blue Jays in the first and second quarters to punch the program’s ticket to the MAWPC Championship Fifth Place game.
Mount St. Mary’s will face Bucknell University at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 24, for Fifth Place, while JHU will clash with Mercyhurst University at 9:00 a.m. in the Seventh Place contest.
Mount St. Mary’s – which previously claimed Seventh (2023), Eighth (2021) and Ninth (2022) Place marks at the MAWPC Championship – fell behind 2-0 in the opening three minutes of the first quarter as the Blue Jays’ Owen Bartlett (So., Newport Harbor, Calif./Newport Harbor) and Andrew Lee (Fr, Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola) connected on natural (6:18) and man-up (5:04) strikes, respectively.
JHU – which split its regular season meetings with the Mountaineers by notching a 16-10 road loss and a 15-13 home victory – maintained a two-goal lead at the the conclusion of the first quarter as Aaron Tarr (So., Johannesburg, South Africa/Westville Boys) (3:58) and Phillip Long (Fr., Cupertino, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep) (3:27, man-up) slipped in shots for the Mountaineers and Blue Jays to make it a 3-1 contest after eight minutes of back-and-forth competition.
Kacper Cieplik (Gr., Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada/John Abbott College) chipped the Mount’s deficit down to 3-2 at the 6:40 mark of the second quarter, but Jason Mihalopoulos (Jr., Las Vegas, Nevada/Bishop Gorman) and Quint Steffey (Jr., Capistrano Beach, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) retorted with successful heaves at 6:07 and 4:10, respectively, to provide JHU a 5-2 margin at the game’s midway point.
Following a strike by Lee at the 5:49 mark of the third quarter to insulate the Blue Jays’ spread to 6-2, the Mountaineers awoke from their offensive slumber as Tarr (3:49, penalty shot) and Bellesis (1:33, man-up; 53 seconds, man-up; 21 seconds) erased Johns Hopkins’ lead with back-to-back-to-back-to-back scores to deadlock the squads at six-all.
JHU – which holds prior Fourth (2016), Fifth (2018), Sixth (2017, 2019, 2023), Seventh (2021) and Eighth (2022) Place finishes at the MAWPC Championship – regained the lead before the conclusion of the third quarter as Long shook his defender to lob in a go-ahead tally with three seconds on the clock.
The Mountaineers, however, refused to go silently as Bellesis (7:46) and Kiahi Horan (Gr., Papamoa, New Zealand/La Salle University) (4:49, man-up) flipped the script to stake the Mount to an 8-7 lead.
Lee (4:26) and Long (3:56) returned the favor by pushing Johns Hopkins back ahead at 9-8, but Tarr (3:38) and Bellesis (2:15) combined for their own two-goal spurt to inch the Mountaineers back in front at 10-9.
Lee (1:53) answered for Hopkins with 1:53 to play in regulation to knot the contest at 10-all and set the stage for the inaugural overtime game of the weekend. However, Tarr brought the curtain down on the possibility of overtime by converting a man-up chance with 1:34 left in regulation for the deciding factor in an 11-10 Mountaineers’ victory.
For Mount St. Mary’s, Bellesis (five) and Tarr (four) inflicted 9/10ths of their team’s offensive damage with Horn and Cieplik racking up solo strikes.
Lee (four) and Long (three) both notched hat-tricks for Hopkins with Mihalopoulos, Steffey and Bartlett chipping in single markers. Kyle Pearson (Sr., Key Biscayne, Fla./Laurel Springs (Calif.)) contributed nine saves in cage.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Division III No. 10 Johns Hopkins University |
3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | – | 10 |
| Mount St. Mary’s University | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | – | 11 |
| Mount St. Mary’s Goals: | Alexandros Bellesis (5); Aaron Tarr (4); Kiahi Horn; Kacper Cieplik | |||||
| Johns Hopkins Goals: | Andrew Lee (4); Phillip Long (3); Jason Mihalopoulos; Quint Steffey; Owen Bartlett | |||||
| Saves: | Mount St. Mary’s – Vasilije Marinkovic (11) ; Johns Hopkins – Kyle Pearson (9) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Mount St. Mary’s – 11 ; Johns Hopkins – 11 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Mount St. Mary’s – 4-for-11 ; Johns Hopkins – 2-for-11 | |||||
| Sprints: | Mount St. Mary’s – 4-for-4 ; Johns Hopkins – 0-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | MAM – Mount St. Mary’s (Alexandros Bellesis, (55 seconds left in 1st Q); YC – Johns Hopkins (Alec Baker, 3:50 left in 3rd Q); YC – Mount St. Mary’s (Head coach Justin Vink, 6:49 left in 4th Q); MAM – Johns Hopkins (Owen Bartlett, 3:56 left in 4th Q) | |||||
| Officials: | James Wolff, Alex High | |||||
Mount St. Mary’s University’s Aaron Tarr (#18) & Johns Hopkins University’s Alec Baker (#6) battle for the ball
Mount St. Mary’s University’s Tommy Houck (#25) scans the Johns Hopkins University defense for an opening as JHU’s Jason Mihalopoulos (#10) closes in
Mount St. Mary’s University’s Jack Fox (#19) attempts to block a scoring try by Johns Hopkins University’s Owen Bartlett (#3)
