Roko's Record

TigerBlog has been to Pepperdine's campus, back in 1987.

It sits overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu. Pretty much anything that is described with those words has to be amazingly scenic.

As he thinks about it, TB wonders how many college campuses he's visited in his life. Back in 1987 he had barely started out in the sportswriting business and was still writing about high school sports, so the number of campuses at the time was pretty small. 

All these years, and all these campuses later, Pepperdine still stands out. How does anyone get any schoolwork done there? It's way too nice there to want to sit in a library. 

The Princeton men's water polo team was on campus yesterday afternoon for a matchup with the Waves, ranked seventh this week.

TB watched the game on ESPN+. Not surprisingly, the broadcast started with a wide angle shot of the surrounding area that led to a close up of the outdoor pool. Why wouldn't it?

The big story was the chance to take down a Top 10 California team. That the Tigers accomplished, leading the whole way and winning xx-xx.

The subplot was the chase for the all-time goals scored record for Princeton men's water polo. Tiger senior Roko Pozaric came into the game with 252, only two behind the 254 John Stover scored before graduating 19 years ago.

Pozaric tied the record in the second quarter and then broke it in the third. By game's end, he had three goals and three assists, leaving him with a career total of 255 goals, the most ever by a Princeton men's water polo player. 

Water polo is not an easy game to play. You're constantly treading water, and pretty much anything goes in terms of contact. 

Forget the contact, actually. Just go find a pool, jump in, palm a ball and tread water for 20 seconds or so before trying to throw it into a goal. 

Just make sure there's a lifeguard there. 

Then there's the goalie position. You're also treading water, only you're expected to basically vault yourself out of the pool to reach a ball traveling at a high rate of speed and keep it out of a relatively large cage. 

Pozaric's record-breaking goal came on a five-meter shot with 4:14 left in the third quarter. The native of Croatia, who'd never been the United States until the day he arrived at Princeton, thumped it into the right side and then raised his fist. 

It didn't look like much of a celebration. Did he not know he had just set the record? Or was there still work to be done in the game? 

🚨ROKO FOR THE RECORD🚨

The Tigers have a new all-time leading goal scorer! pic.twitter.com/aMVLFdTlKI

— Princeton Water Polo (@Pwaterpolo) October 15, 2024

Pepperdine didn't go quietly, cutting it from 12-8 to 12-11 with 17 seconds to play. TB, not being a water polo expert, wondered if there was some sort of "put them on the foul line and hope they miss" strategy for the end game.

Nope. The Waves tried to create a steal, but there was no steal to be had. Princeton was able to hold on. 

The win over the No. 7 team in the country was preceded by a 10-8 loss to No. 2 UCLA and a 19-10 win over unranked Westcliff. 

What's left on this trip? 

The Tigers are at No. 3 Southern Cal today and then No. 4 Friday, followed by the final game on this challenging Fall Break trip, at No. 8 Cal Sunday before the flight home.

Princeton is ranked 11th this week, behind two Eastern teams: No. 6 Fordham and No. 10 Harvard. There are huge games to be played as October rolls into November, with the end goal a return trip to the NCAA tournament, where Princeton reached the semifinals last year. 

There are five remaining regular season games, beginning with two at DeNunzio Pool against LIU and Iona on Saturday, Nov. 2. After that, there is a trip to play at MIT, Harvard and Brown the following weekend, all building to the Northeast Water Polo Conference tournament in DeNunzio Nov. 22-24.