7/11/2001 - Men's Water Polo
Navy Plays Host to United States Water Polo Men's National Championship

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy will play host to the 2001 United States Water Polo Men's National Championship, July 27-29, at Lejeune Hall. This marks the first time the prestigious tournament will be held on the East Coast in more than 20 years.

"Anytime we can get teams here of this caliber like Cal, New York Athletic Club and the Olympic Club, it is wonderful for our guys because they accept the challenge of playing teams that have been getting it done at the national level," Navy head coach Mike Schofield said. We are very excited about it. This is will be a season-ending tournament for a lot of the club teams, whereas it will be more of a preseason event for us because all of our guys have been doing summer cruise for the last six weeks."

The 12-team tournament will consist of former members of the U.S. National Team, future members of the U.S. National Team, college All-Americas and many NCAA Division I players. The top-three teams from last year along with one team from each of the nine zones comprise the field.

The Navy Aquatic Club will look to improve on its 12th-place finish last year in Los Alamitos, Calif. Navy's top-three returning scorers Brendan Naeve (Sr./La Jolla, Calif.) and Joe Donahue (So./Annapolis, Md.) will lead Navy AC into battle.

Long Beach Shores captured the tournament last year, while New York AC has won 27 national titles, including two of the last four.

The tournament kicks off at 7 a.m., Friday morning with the championship slated for 3:10 p.m., Sunday. The awards ceremony will be held at 4:20 p.m., following the championship game. Adult tournament passes are $15, while single-session/day tickets each day for adults are $6. Tournament passes for kids 18 and under are $10 or $4 each day.