Tiger men to rely on new faces
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University men’s water polo team ended the 2006 season ranked 14th in the country by the Collegiate Water Polo Association.
The Tigers open the 2007 season ranked just one spot lower at 15, quite a statement for a team that lost 10 seniors that accounted for 126 goals on last year’s 18-8 squad.
"I try not to focus on preseason rankings," said PU water polo coach Luis Nicolao. "We’re really excited to get this year started. We have essentially a new team. We lost a couple guys in the last couple years that played a lot. We’re excited to get some new guys the opportunity to play more and we have some good incoming freshmen."
Gone is honorable mention All-America Nicholas Seaver to graduation, as well as Reid Joseph, who accounted for 32 goals and 20 assists and also led the team with 47 steals. Princeton also lost its leading scorer, sophomore Eric Vreeland, who had team highs of 52 goals and 35 assists, and was an All-Southern Division member.
It’s quality, not quantity this year for the Tigers who will begin the year at home when they host the Princeton Invitational Sept. 7-9 at DeNunzio Pool. The senior class is small this year with just three players. Zach Beckmann, Jason Diggs and Scott Syverson will share the captain duties as the lone seniors. Beckmann had 22 goals and 18 assists last year. Syverson started 24 of the Tigers’ 26 games in goal and made 181 saves.
"I’m a firm believer that every team that I’ve had that’s had success has started with positive leadership," Nicolao said. "Our guys know that. It’s playing together and coming together as a team. They’ve been wonderful so far this year.
"Scotty and Zach were starters last year. Diggs was a role player who hopes to contribute more this year."
Princeton has a number of players in Diggs’ situation. Brendan Colgan is the leading returning scorer. The junior driver had 29 goals last season, fourth best on the team. Sophomore Mark Zalewski had 21 goals.
"Our starting goalie is returning from last year," Nicolao said. "We have a couple field players who were in the starting mix last year. We have a nice nucleus returning, and we have a couple guys that played key roles off the bench last year who are now going to get a chance to play some more. We have to deal with the graduation losses. It’s exciting for us.
"I think the biggest area is our depth. The last few years, we had such a large team we were really deep, to the point we had seven or eight guys who didn’t travel. This year, I think everyone will travel. That’s the biggest area of change, the size of the bench. We’ll have to adjust as the season goes along."
Princeton adds to the returning core a strong freshman class. Jeff Coile, Matt Hale, Mike Merlone, Tommy Parolin and Peter Schulam give the Tigers a strong group for the present and the future.
"We’re going to do our best to ease them into it," Nicolao said. "They have the ability to contribute right away. A lot of our success will depend on how they adjust to playing in college. It’s not a big class but all of them will contribute. It’s a very high quality of guys."
With a smaller team than usual, the Tigers will have to play disciplined in games and avoid ejections. And the players will have to be able to play longer periods of time with a shorter bench. Nicolao feels the team is capable of both while adjusting its playing strategy just a little.
"We’re really focusing a lot on our preseason conditioning," he said. "The guys came in, in the best shape in years. I think we have to look to be smarter in games and for ways to conserve energy while still being aggressive."
With barely a week of practice in, the Tigers still have another week before getting a taste of the opposition at the Princeton Invitational. The Tigers host Fordham to open the year, then face Gannon, Meryhurst and Iona before a showdown with preseason No. 16 Santa Clara.
"Were going to hope to use that first weekend of games to see where we are," Nicolao said. "We always have to adjust the style of play we have after it. We lost some players who were primary 2-meter men, hole sets, so we will have to change our style a little bit. A lot will be determined by the first couple weeks. We just started practicing last week so we’re still trying to figure it out.
"It’s always nice to start at home," he added. "We’re really looking forward to getting it going with the new faces in the water. We’ll try to use the five games to try different combinations and play a lot of guys and see how it goes."
Last year, the Tigers opened the season in their pool and ended it there as well when they lost to Navy, 9-6, in the Eastern Championships. They open at home again this year, and they’re looking forward to earning the chance to play Nov. 17 at MIT in the distant future.
"We want to do all we can to get back to the Eastern final again," Nicolao said. "The East will be the usual suspects St. Francis, Navy, Bucknell, those schools will all be right there. There’s no question we’ll be right in the middle of the mix. But right now we’re taking it one game at a time and trying to figure out our team.
"In the last couple years, we had a nucleus of guys that started as freshmen and sophomores so we knew what we had. At the same time, it’s exciting. We’re a new team. I think we’ll be able to go out and perform at a high level."
Based on the preseason rankings, so does the rest of the water polo world. The Tiger men hope to prove them right.

