This past weekend at the Miami (OH) Memorial Invitational, the #12 Notre Dame Men’s Water Polo Team found themselves placed in a bracket with fierce rival #14 Miami (OH) and #20 Indiana University, while also missing starters Jon Kelly and Khaw Zhan Wei. The Irish first faced off with the hosting Red Hawks on Friday night, in front of roughly 300 screaming Miami fans. However, Notre Dame promptly discounted any home field advantage by jumping out to a 4-2 lead, which they kept extending throughout the game. Led by sophomore captain Patrick Connors’ 4 goals, and great hole-set play by Tom Fletcher and Colin Dunn, the Irish entered the 4th quarter leading 8-4. However, with four minutes left, the Red Hawks began to mount a furious comeback, bringing the lead down to one with less than a minute to play. With :38 remaining, the Miami hole-set drew an ejection foul to give them a twenty second man-advantage. But the Irish defense, led by goalkeeper Dave Mazur, did not budge this time, and held on to secure a spectacular 8-7 victory. Seniors George Heidkamp and captain Steve Shepard also tallied goals for the Irish.

Saturday morning, Notre Dame played their other bracket foe, the Hoosiers of IU. At the beginning of the game it was all Irish, as Shepard and Connors put away a couple quick goals each to get the team rolling. Coming out of halftime with a two goal lead, Notre Dame looked set to cruise into the semifinals. The Irish did cruise, and IU took complete advantage, bringing intensity and desire to the second half. A two goal advantage quickly turned into a three goal deficit, and the Irish never got back into the game. A combination of bad bounces for the Irish and some very lucky goals for Indiana also didn’t help Notre Dame’s cause, as the team went down 12-8.

After a forfeit by Ohio State, Notre Dame was drawn into the ninth place game with Lindenwood University. Despite some great outside shooting by Shepard and a good performance by freshman hole-set Craig Bentzen, the Irish were never able to gain more than a two goal advantage over Lindenwood. This would later haunt the Irish, as some costly mistakes in the 4th quarter led to a 10-9 defeat for ND. The Irish were unlucky once again in this one, but will look to gain some revenge on these teams two weeks from now at the Hoosier Invitational in Bloomington.