No. 13 Princeton Defeats No. 17 Brown, 14-9, in Eastern Championship Semifinals

Nov. 23, 2008

Annapolis, MD - Sophomore Gordon Hood (Carlsbad, CA) scored three goals and senior Mike Gartner (San Jose, CA) tallied two as the No. 13 Princeton University Tigers defeated the No. 17 Brown men's water polo team, 14-9, in the semifinals of the 2008 Eastern Championship at the United States Naval Academy.

The Tigers never trailed against Brown, building a 3-1 lead by the end of the first period and built a 6-4 lead heading into halftime. With the Tigers up 2-0 with 3:46 remaining in the first period, Brown halved the lead at 2:31 with a goal by Gartner, but the Tigers answered right back after a penalty shot by Eric Vreeland to take a 3-1 lead.

Princeton continued to increased its lead, going ahead 5-1 midway through the second period, but Hood and senior Nico Fort (Miami, FL) scored goals to bring the Bears with two. With the score 6-4 in Princeton's favor after the half, the teams traded shots in the third to an 8-5 Tigers' lead before Vreeland went on a mini-spurt with even-strength tallies at 2:49 and 2:02 to give the Tigers a 10-5 lead. Bruno trimmed the lead to four with 27 seconds left in the period with a marker by Hood to make it 10-6 with eight minutes of play remaining.

The Bears were down just 10-7 with 7:04 left in the fourth after a penalty shot by senior Grant LeBeau (San Diego, CA), but that was as close as Brown would come as Princeton stretched its lead to 14-9 for the win.

Junior Kent Holland (Orinda, CA) stopped six shots for Brown in net, as the Bears face the loser of the Navy-St. Francis semifinal game at noon on Nov. 23 in the third-place game.