The GW men’s water polo team ended its regular season with four straight losses at the Air Force Invite in high-altitude Colorado Springs, Co., dropping all four tournament games last weekend. Junior Pat Dodge led the Colonials and was named to the all-tournament team.

GW head coach Scott Reed said his team played well despite losing four matches, considering the strength of the competition it faced. He said the competition was good preparation for the upcoming conference championship.

GW (4-16, 0-4 CWPA) now heads into the postseason as the sixth seed at the six-team Southern Division Championship next weekend in Princeton, N.J. The top four teams at Southerns move on to the Eastern Championships and the top two teams from there move on to the 64-team NCAA tournament.

“We played four very, very tough teams,” he said. “We got a lot accomplished and we’re looking forward to (Southerns) next weekend.”
Dodge scored only four goals on the weekend but was successful in drawing defenders away from his teammates, Reed said.

“Every team discovered that Dodge was our go-to guy,” Reed said. “They did a lot of dropping and crashing on him and definitely wouldn’t let him score.”

The concentration on Dodge cleared the way for sophomore Nick Koenemann and freshman Anthony Guadagni to lead GW’s balanced offensive attack.

“The offense was very even and everyone contributed,” Reed said. “It was good to see the even distribution.”

After dropping the first three games of the tournament, the Colonials closed out the weekend with another frustrating loss to the University of California-Santa Cruz 11-4 Sunday.

“It was our toughest game (of the weekend),” Reed said. “We just had trouble putting the ball in the net.”

After falling behind 6-0 at halftime, the Colonials toughened in the second half but could not recover from the deficit and ended the weekend with an 11-4 loss.

“It was a frustrating game,” Reed said. “Balls were bouncing off the crossbar but our guys never gave up.”

In a more closely contested match earlier Sunday, host Air Force Academy flew past GW 12-7. Senior Charles Horn led the way for the Falcons with four goals.

GW fell behind quickly as Air Force scored three goals to start the game, but Dodge answered with a goal of his own to cut the lead to 3-1 at the end of the first period.

The Falcons came out strong in the second period and scored within moments after play resumed. GW responded with two quick goals, only to see the Falcons extend their lead to 7-3 at the half.

The home crowd seemed to refuel Air Force’s tanks, as the team fired in three consecutive goals at the start of the third quarter. Sophomore Taylor Woodbury netted GW’s only goal of the quarter.

The Colonials scored three times in the fourth and held Air Force to one goal, but could not complete the comeback.

“It was tough to play in front of their home crowd,” Reed said. “They were definitely up and ready to go.”

On Saturday, GW faced two nationally ranked teams, No. 19 University of California-Davis and No. 17 California Baptist University, and played well in both games.

In Saturday’s second game, the Colonials fell to Davis 6-4, falling behind 3-1 in the first quarter. GW cut the lead to 4-3 by the half but Davis added a goal in the third and the teams traded goals in the fourth to produce the final margin.

Reed said the team played one of its best games of the season despite ending the day with the loss.

“We were containing their offense, preventing them from scoring and converting on our shots when we had to,” he said. “It was dead even the whole way, but we just came up a little short.”

Reed said freshman goalkeeper Tom Mills played one of the best games of the season, coming up with a number of important saves.
In the opening game of the weekend, the Colonials were beaten handily by Cal Baptist, 19-5.

The teams played to a 3-3 tie in the first quarter, but Cal Baptist began to pull away in the second and led 7-4 at the half. GW could not keep up in the second half and was outscored 12-1 to end the game.

“The high altitude seemed to get to us and the guys started falling apart,” Reed said. “It was like we were swimming in molasses.”