Water polo (7-8) fell to Bucknell (8-9) and won in overtime against Mount St. Mary’s (5-14) in a pair of away games Saturday. 

After collecting a win against Johns Hopkins and suffering a loss against Navy last weekend, the Revolutionaries survived another split weekend full of MAPWC rivalries. After losing to Bison early Saturday, the Revolutionaries beat the Mountaineers in overtime later in the day. 

Match 1: 

The Revolutionaries previously were unable to defeat their MAWPC rival Bucknell during a home game Sept. 23 when they fell 11-13. The two teams competed on the Bisons’ home turf in Lewisburg, Pa. on Saturday, where the Revolutionaries lost 6-8. 

Bucknell started off with a 3-0 run as the Revs’ defense failed to offer resistance against the Bison offense. However, the game shifted when junior utility Andrija Sekulic and freshman attacker Kai De Orbeta scored for GW, narrowing the Bisons’ lead to 1 in the first quarter. 

Senior center Viktor Jovanovic and De Orbeta led the team with two goals each. In his first season with the Revs, De Orbeta currently sports a 40.63 percent shot percentage while tallying 13 goals thus far in the season. Sekulic, who returned to the team for what will be his third season, has drawn 25 exclusions against opposing teams.

Senior goalkeeper Luca Castorina recorded nine saves in the game, evening out his 50 percent save percentage. Castorina has acted as the Revs’ lone goalkeeper since his freshman season in 2020.

Head Coach Barry King said Castorina prepares players against difficult opponents by allowing them to practice their offensive skills on an experienced goalie.

“So we get the benefit of in practice of playing against one of the best goalkeepers in college water polo,” King said. “That can only pay benefits for us down the line when you’re a shooter and you’ve got to learn how to score against one of the best goalkeepers.”

As the game progressed, both teams kept the score tight as they responded with consecutive and responsive goals one after another. Yet the Revolutionaries ultimately fell to the Bison with the final score sitting at 6-8. 

Match 2: 

The Revolutionaries entered their second game of the day with newfound momentum after a loss and a location shift to Emittsburg, Md. Both teams fought tooth and nail while accumulating nine ties throughout the game. In their first of two season games against Mount Saint Mary’s, the Revs clinched a one-goal win in overtime. 

Both teams started the game with strong offense with each team scoring two goals, but Mountaineer center defender Nicholas Wallace-Whitfield scored to end the first quarter with a point lead of 2-3. The Revs fought harder offensively throughout the second quarter and led 6-5 at halftime. 

In the third quarter, the Mount responded back with a stronger defense and offense, with the Mountaineers having a point lead with the score of 9-8. 

“We have given up entirely too many goals in places where we should be controlling the ball,” King said. “So that was a big focus this week and will be as we move forward. And then, we want to be a little bit more proficient offensively and possess the ball a little bit more inside the shot clock and develop some things rather than be hasty and turn the ball over.”

Despite being down a goal to the Mountaineers, the Revolutionaries scrambled to net five goals throughout the quarter, leading to a 13-13 tie that sent the game to overtime. 

During overtime, both teams were able to get a score each which tied the game for a brief moment before Sekulic secured the game-winning goal, ending the match with a final score of 15-14 and concluding the Revs’ two-game losing streak. 

Similarly to their performance against the Bison earlier in the day, Jovanovic and Sekulic controlled the Revs’ offense. Jovanovic stockpiled five goals and three exclusions while Sekulic amassed four goals, including the game-winning net-in. In addition to Castorina’s nine saves in the earlier game, he recorded 13 saves and two steals against the Mountaineers. 

The Revolutionaries will head to the Harvard Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 14 in Providence, Rhode Island, where they will take on Brown at 10:30 a.m. and Iona at 4:30 p.m. They will then travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sunday, Oct. 15 to take on Harvard at 8:30 a.m. and UC Merced at 1:30 p.m.