Late Rally Falls Short For #20 Air Force at #18 Navy

20th-ranked Air Force men's water polo (5-4) dropped an 11-7 contest at #18 Navy Thursday night at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md.

Air Force opened the game with a goal by freshman Tom Leggett to lead early. The lead was short-lived as Navy scored seven unanswered goals to jump ahead 7-1.

The Falcons faced an uphill battle the rest of the way, but managed to get the game to within a three score game at 8-5. The big deficit was too hard to overcome, as the Midshipmen held off the Falcons the rest of the way.

Navy claimed the Freedom Vase for the first time in three years with the win.

Senior Ian Christie led the Falcons with two goals. Leggett, Kaito Ham, Colin Chase, Jacob Yi and Alex Zarcu added goals for the Falcons. Sophomore Luca Smith had eight saves in goal for the Falcons.

"We definitely struggled offensively in the first half," head coach Ryan brown said. "We were not moving the ball like we were supposed to. We moved the ball around more in the second half and it opened things up and we got more opportunities. Our defense was pretty solid, except in a few areas, but we just need to score more."

Air Force returns to action at the Bucknell Invite this Sat.-Sun., Sept. 16-17. The Falcons open against #5 Princeton and Wagner on Saturday in Lewisburg, Pa.

Footer

The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the u.s air force of non-u.s. government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although the u.s. air force may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for department of defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all of the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.