This post was written by Hatchet reporter Rob Bartnichak.

Men’s water polo fell to Navy 19-15 Saturday night on senior day at the Smith Center.

Senior Ridvan Pehlivan paced the GW offense with five goals, and added two assists and one steal in the losing effort. Junior Bogdan Petkovic also tallied five goals, while adding two assists and five steals.

“We scored 15 goals, which is a lot for water polo,” said Pehlivan, who is part of a GW offense that has averaged 12 goals per game this season. “We’ve got to get better defensively. We can’t keep going back and forth and getting scored on.”

GW entered the game coming off a 13-11 win Wednesday over Johns Hopkins. Despite a sense of momentum from that win, head coach Scott Reed noticed a drop in defensive play Saturday against the Midshipmen.

“We made a lot of mistakes that lead to direct goals for Navy,” Reed said. “We didn’t do that on Wednesday, so that was a bit of a surprise.”

GW led Navy two minutes into the second quarter, but the Midshipmen scored the next six goals to build a lead they never relinquished.

The Colonials will take on Navy next Saturday on the road to try to finish the season at .500.

“It’s bad to lose, but we get another chance next week to get our revenge,” Pehlivan said. “It’s not going to end like this, we’re going to fight more and out-hustle them.”

GW has one regular season game remaining before the Collegiate Water Polo Association playoffs begin Nov. 7.