MORGANTOWN, West Virginia – The Salem men's water polo team made history today at the Mylan Park Aquatic Centre in West Virginia. For the first time in the history of the program, the Tigers defeated the United States Naval Academy in a dramatic sudden death showdown. Both teams fought toe to toe however Manuel Soto Estella finished off the game with a man up advantage goal that gave the win to Salem 14-13. This is an achievement that the men should be extremely proud of as Navy is also receiving votes in the NCAA top 20 rankings this week.
 
During their first game today, Salem faced NCAA Division I opponent Wagner College. In the first half, the men trailed Wagner 13- 9. However, they came out with a stronger offense in the 3^rd quarter scoring 5 goals to the Seahawks 3 brining the score to 14 – 16. The last quarter saw Wagner overpower the Tigers finishing off the game 21 – 16. Chad Rowley had an outstanding game adding 5 goals to the board, and Marko Zivojinovic just behind him with 4 goals for the tigers. Manuel Soto Estela had 2 goals. Ivan Zivojinovic and Nikola Cvetkovic both tallied 1 goal.
 
The first quarter of the Navy game saw the Tigers in the lead 2 goals to 1. They continued this advantage into the end of the first half leading 4-3. This low goal count showed how strong each team's defense was. The end of the third quarter showed a score of 7-5 to Salem. However, Navy was reluctant to let the Tigers walk away with a win that easily. In the last quarter, Navy scored 5 goals and Salem 3 which equaled out the score 11-11. This took the game into two 3-minute overtime quarters, Navy came out strong scoring the first two goals in overtime, however, the Tigers were quick to match their pace scoring the next two goals which led to a final quarter of sudden death. This meant that the first team to score wins the game. It only took Salem 40 seconds into the next period to earn an exclusion and finish the game on a man up play, taking the win 14-13.
 
There were many outstanding performances in the pool this afternoon including Nikola Krstonosic who scored 6 goals for the Tigers, 2 drawn exclusions and added 2 assists. Marko Zivojinovic was not far behind with a total of 4 goals, 3 drawn exclusions and 1 steal. Manuel Soto Estela scored 2 goals, and his last being that match winning goal. He also added 2 drawn exclusions. Ivan Zivojinovic added one goal and one steal and Nikola Cvetkovic also put up 1 goal for Salem. All the boys should be extremely proud of their efforts this weekend as they were tough competition to some well renowned opponents, and they put their names in the history books for Salem water polo this afternoon. A huge congratulations is also for head coach Robert Bullion as he so seamlessly put together a fantastic weekend of home games for a total of 7 teams, whilst coaching his own group. Ending on such a high should have the men fired up for their next round of games at the Harvard Invititational next weekend.