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14 of Eastern Water Polo's Best to Meet at 2009 Elite Six Tournament & ECAC Championship
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. – The best of
the East Coast’s two conferences will be in action as the
2009 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship and
Elite Six Tournament will be decided this weekend.
Elite Six Tournament
The 2009 Elite Six Tournament will
be hosted by Bucknell University at Kinney Natatorium in Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania on Saturday, February 28 through Sunday, March 1.
Established in June 2007 as a meeting place for the top six teams
from the previous season’s Collegiate Water Polo Association
(CWPA) Eastern Championship, the 2009 Elite Six Tournament will
feature five of last year’s six best teams at the 2008
Eastern Championship hosted by the University of Michigan as Brown
University elected to compete in the ECAC Championship.
Harvard University, which will host this year’s Eastern
Championship, replaces Brown in the field as Indiana University
chose to attend the UC-Santa Cruz Slugfest and Mercyhurst College
elected to attend the ECAC Championship at Marist College.
This year’s theme should be revenge, as the tournament will
kick-off at 9:45 a.m. with the penultimate vengeance game – a
rematch of the 2008 Eastern Championship final between 2006 &
2007 champion Hartwick College and 2008 titleist the University of
Michigan.
The Hawks, ranked No. 15 in the latest national poll, will be
looking for a measure of retribution against the No. 14 ranked
Wolverines as Hartwick saw its dreams of joining Slippery Rock
University as the only teams to win three consecutive titles dashed
courtesy a 10-7 loss in the 2008 Eastern title game at
Michigan.
No. 20 ranked University of Maryland will continue the tournament
at 11:00 a.m. versus Harvard before Michigan returns to the pool to
take on the Terrapins at 3:30 p.m. Hartwick will then take on
Princeton University at 4:45 p.m. before Harvard and Bucknell
wrap-up day one of the tournament at 6:00 p.m.
On Sunday, Princeton and Michigan will clash at 8:00 a.m. in a
rematch of the 2008 Eastern semifinals in which the Wolverines
knocked off the Tigers 7-4. Maryland and Hartwick meet at 9:30
a.m.; Bucknell and Michigan follow at 11:00 a.m., Princeton and
Harvard meet at 12:30 p.m., while Hartwick and Bucknell close out
the tournament at 3:30 p.m. in the final game of the weekend.
A complete tournament bracket is available here.
A storyline to watch: Last year, Michigan went 4-0
at the Elite Six Tournament, including a 10-6 win over Hartwick, in
a precursor for the 2008 Eastern Championship. Will this
year’s champion repeat the feat in 2009?
ECAC CHAMPIONSHIP
In the only regular season championship meeting between teams from
the CWPA and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) before the
National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship (NCAA), the
Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship will pit
Marist College, Iona College, St. Francis College, Wagner College
and Siena College of the MAAC against the CWPA’s Brown and
Mercyhurst.
Marist, the No. 1 seed and host for the championship, will look to
conclude a matter from last year as the Red Foxes became the first
MAAC institution to advance to the title game, but fell 8-7 to host
Bucknell University.
Home pool advantage has not been in favor of the host team over the
history of the ECAC Championship as Bucknell became the fourth team
and only the second program in nine championships to win the title
at home. Three-time winner Princeton is the only team to have a
perfect 3-0 mark in home ECAC Championship tournaments as the
Tigers took the 2000 (8-5 W vs. University of Massachusetts), 2001
(9-6 W vs. Brown) and 2003 (10-8 W vs. Hartwick).
Brown University, which passed up an opportunity to compete in the
Elite Six Tournament for a chance at the program’s first ECAC
title, earned the second seed for this year’s tournament,
while Iona (No. 3), George Washington (No. 4), St. Francis (No. 5),
Wagner (No. 6), Siena (No. 7) and Mercyhurst (No. 8) round out the
field.
A complete bracket is available here.
A storyline to watch: A MAAC program has never won
the ECAC Championship as Princeton University (2000-01, 2003,
2005-07), Hartwick College (2002, 2004) and Bucknell University
(2008) are the only teams to take the title. In addition, this
marks the first ECAC Championship hosted by a MAAC team as the
previous championships were hosted by Bucknell (2008, 2005),
Harvard (2007, 2002), Maryland (2006), Brown (2004) and Princeton
(2003, 2001, 2000).
