NCAA Men’s Regular Season Comes to an End, Three South Florida Studs headed to the NCAA Championships

With December rolling around it has come to that point of the year, the NCAA Men’s Water Polo National Championships, marked by the end of the regular season two weeks ago and the Conference championships a week later. With all teams getting a week’s rest before the Division I and Division III national championships approaching, we would like to look back at the incredible seasons our five South Florida Water Polo Club studs have had in the 2025 season.

Carson Neidert (Sr. Utility, Connecticut College), Carson captained the Connecticut College Camels in his final year playing.

When we last caught up to Connecticut College, Senior utility player, Carson Neidert, his Connecticut College team had just finished a one-day, three-game stint at Brown University in the end of September, following the busy day, the Camels would have a few weeks off before splashing back in the pool on October 12th for a single game outing at Iona University, a tough loss would see the Camels take a 9-21 loss, Carson inserting himself early in the game with several assists in what began as a tightly contested match before the Iona Gaels were able to pull away. A week later Connecticut College would travel to Erie, Pennsylvania for the first action of the MPSF season against their fellow east coast opponents in Johns Hopkins University, Washington & Jefferson College and Penn State Behrend. The weekend would come with mixed results, a 10-21 loss to Johns Hopkins, a huge 20-8 victory over Washington & Jefferson but finishing the weekend with a 12-19 loss to Penn State, while providing his strong defense throughout the three-game stint, Carson would also find the goal in the later stages of the of the victory over Washington & Jefferson as well as he would score a pair of goals against Penn State to try and help his Camels against Penn State’s explosive third quarter that would seal the game in their favor. The following weekend would finally see Connecticut College return home, finally getting to play in front of a home crowd in New London, Connecticut, the Camels would try to see redemption playing against the Iona University Gaels, however, that would become short lived as Iona pulled away early for a 10-19 victory, for his efforts Carson was able to convert a goal in the second quarter trying to help his team keep pace with the Gaels. The rough loss to Iona would have some time to subside before the Camels travelled north to Norton, Massachusetts as they set to take on four different MPSF East Conference opponents from November 7th to November 9th, Connecticut College began their long weekend with a 27-9 thumping victory over Wheaton College, Carson would score once as the Camels easily rotated through their team getting everyone playing time as they cruised to a win. Though the weekend started strong, the next three games proved hard to swallow as the next two games against Austin College and Augustana College would both be two identical heartbreaking 2-goal losses by scores of 12-14, leading from the front Carson tempered the Connecticut College attack against Austin College by providing a hat-trick as well as a two-goal performance against Augustana College, the following day Penn State would once again manage to pull another victory over Connecticut College by a 8-13 scoreline. For the regular season finale, Connecticut College played host to Wheaton College at home, pulling away a 16-12 victory that started strong for the Camels before the visitors would pull back slightly, however, by the end of the match the Camels would find the difference in the third quarter to give them the ample lead to allow them to rotate players, in his final home game for Connecticut College, it was a fairy-tale ending for Carson, as he would score a goal towards the end of the third quarter, giving one of the team captains the perfect home send-off before Connecticut College would travel to the MPSF Conference Championships in Stanford, California. Arriving in north California for the November 21st-23rd tournament, the Camels jumped in the pool against a familiar opponent in Penn State, however, once again Penn State proved too much as they would win 7-14 over Connecticut College, though the weekend would start out tough, Connecticut College would see two more victories to close out their season. A 24-10 victory for the Camels over Wheaton College on the second day of play would then be followed by an exciting 20-15 victory over Washington & Jefferson on the final day of play with the tempo of the game brought to by Carson, he would score the very first goal of the game of Connecticut College and fittingly in his final game for the Camels he would also score the very last goal of the game to fully cement the game for the team he had captained all season long. With Carson being a leader for the team, Connecticut College would finish their NCAA season with a 6-14 final record and a 3-5 conference play record, while Carson would see a lot of his playing time primarily come as a center defender or a utility role, he would still add 18 goals to his name as well as several assists while being a great leader and captain for the Camels.

Gregory Nordheim (Jr., Center Defender, Bucknell University), Gregory provided strong center defense play for the Bisons throughout the season.

Staying on the east coast we travel to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania where we catch up to Bucknell University and our very own Gregory Nordheim, the junior center defender that coached with our club over the summer. Last we saw of the Bisons, they had finished hosting their annual Bison Invitational with a victory over Wagner College, the following weekend would see them travel to the nation’s capital to take on #19-ranked, George Washington University. A fourth quarter disaster would see Bucknell concede the game, losing a 13-15 scoreline, which would be followed the next day with a short travel to Annapolis, Maryland to take on the Naval Academy where another loss would take down Bucknell as the Midshipmen would see a 14-18 victory once again coming from a late goalscoring run. A rough end to September would continue as Bucknell would host George Washington in Lewisburg on October 4th, however, this meeting would be much more in the favor the Washington D.C.-based team as Bucknell would be taken down 8-17. The tough three-game losing streak would finally come to an end as Bucknell would see a pair of games against Mercyhurst University, first traveling to Erie on October 5th and hammering the Lakers with a score of 26-12 and a quick turnaround on October 10th saw Bucknell host the Lakers to once again thump the visitors with a score of 21-9. The Bisons would remain at home for the following weekend, continuing the MAWPC Conference play, Bucknell would see Mount. Saint Mary’s come to the Kinney Natatorium where the Bisons would trample the Mountaineers with a 13-9 scoreline. The three-game winning streak would come to an end by the hands of the Naval Academy a week later on October 19th where 14-19 loss would see the Bisons come undone, following the loss to Navy the Bisons would leave cold Lewisburg and travel west for the annual Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament hosted by Santa Clara and San Jose universities, the weekend began strong against Fresno Pacific with a victory over the west coast opposition by a 21-12 scoreline. However, the victories would be short lasted as the following three games came against strong, ranked opposition starting with #7-ranked Pacific University who would take a 12-16 victory, then #12-ranked California Baptist University would handle the Bisons with a 11-18 scoreline, the final game of the tournament would come against #15-ranked Loyola Marymount University who would hammer Bucknell with a 10-23 score to close out Bucknell’s west coast stint. Bucknell would return east to finish their season on the road against east coast MAWPC opposition, visiting Mount. Saint Mary’s on November 1st would see Bucknell return to the winning circle with a 18-15 victory, though the following weekend would prove to be half success, traveling to New York on November 8th, Bucknell would first see #5-ranked Fordham University who would smash Bucknell by a 4-18 score, though crushed but not deterred, Bucknell would quickly turn around for an evening game against Wagner College where Bucknell outlasted the Seahawks in an 18-17 victory to close out the regular season. With the regular season finished, Bucknell would take a weekend off before traveling back to New York for the MAWPC Conference Championships, the first game would be against Wagner College, where the Seahawks proved they had learned from the previous matchup two weeks prior as they crushed Bucknell 13-21, ending any potential hopes Bucknell had of earning a spot into the NCAA National Championships by winning the Conference Championship tournament. Though their national championships had ended, the Bisons would close out the season strong with two more victories, the first another resounding victory over Mercyhurst University with a 23-6 victory and the game against Mount. Saint Mary’s being an absolute showdown to close out the season where Bucknell would win a double overtime match by a 14-12 scoreline to finish the MAWPC Conference Championship in fifth place. The long 28-game season came to a close for Bucknell University with a 12-16 final record and a 6-6 conference record, due to Bucknell’s lack of providing stats it is hard to quantify Greg’s contribution to the team, however, his work as one of the team’s primary center defenders always makes him one of the team’s most important athletes as he provides his usual elite defense.

Max Zelikov (Redshirt Fr., Attacker, Stanford University), Max has proven himself to be one of the elite perimeter shooters in the country from the right-hand side of the pool after an impressive first campaign for the Stanford Cardinal.

We travel west to check in on our stud redshirt freshman attacker, Max Zelikov and his mighty Stanford Cardinal as they continued their incredible season and punched their ticket into the NCAA National Championships in the third overall seed. When we last saw of Stanford they had split their games in the MPSF Invitational, only losing to the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the nation in UCLA and USC, this would become the trend of their season and will be as they look to exercise those demons this coming weekend on December 5th-7th. Following the MPSF Invitational Stanford would travel to San Jose and earn a hard fought 12-5 victory over #5-ranked San Jose University, Max would sit the game would, dealing with some injuries, however, he would return two days later for the opening day at Avery Stadium, Stanford’s fortress home pool where they would play host to #11-ranked Pepperdine University, Max would not miss a bit as he would find the back of the net once again helping lead Stanford to a 19-14 victory. A week of preparation would bring Stanford to play host to UCLA and USC the next weekend to start the play of the MPSF regular season match ups, it would be a tough weekend for Stanford who would lose to USC by a 10-14 and to UCLA by a 11-14 scoreline. Stanford would lick their wounds and quickly regather, the following weekend would see #10-ranked Long Beach State come to the Farm in Stanford, where Stanford showed their class from start to finish a strong first half would be followed with Stanford smashing Long Beach in the third quarter with a 6-0 score would see the game end with a 19-11 final score, Max would again see himself on the scoresheet, providing a pair of goals to Stanford’s potent attack. On October 17th, would be the first edition of this year’s rivalry match up as Stanford would host the #2-ranked Cal Bears, the historic rivalry would see this match up go to the Cardinal as Stanford would shut down most of Cal’s shooters with their elite defense and goalkeeping winning a 12-8 victory in full control, winning every quarter by a goal as they frustrated their Bay Area opposition. The final of the six-game homestead for Stanford would be hosting #6-ranked UC Davis where once again Stanford would hammer their west coast opposition with a strong first half that led to a 18-12 scoreline, Max would once again rip the twine of the net twice, continuing to add onto his season totals. With their run of home games finished, Stanford would travel south to the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament, however, they would only sign up to play one opposition, the east coast powerhouse #5-ranked Fordham University, a strong first quarter for the Cardinal would see them control the pace of play through their centers and continue their great run of form with a 19-10 victory with Max nailing the final goal of the game on a sharp skip shot on a cross-face pass. The following weekend would see Stanford travel back south to Los Angeles to attempt and redeem their losses to UCLA and USC, however, that would not be the case, the UCLA game was one of the games of the season only ending in triple overtime after UCLA had managed to draw a penalty that would be scored by one of their veterans to earn a 12-13 sudden death victory, this hard fought loss would weigh on the minds of Stanford who would then be handled by USC by a 9-14 scoreline. Still ranked third in the nation, Stanford would quickly lick its wounds as it had a quick turnaround to prepare to play against the #17-ranked Santa Clara Broncos, a thumping victory 17-9 in favor of the Cardinals led by Max’s hat-trick would bring Stanford back to winning form, the victory would be followed up with another on the weekend against #6-ranked Pacific University, Stanford would take an early resounding 6-2 lead that would tempo the game to a 16-7 victory on Stanford’s Senior Day and final regular season home game, Max would be one of the scorers in the first quarter. For his efforts through the week against Santa Clara and Pacific, Max would earn the MPSF West Newcomer of the Week award, awarded to the best performing MPSF athlete who is playing in their first season officially, the four goal, two assist and one steal week with a the 6-8 performance indicator showing Max as a +3.27 would earn Max the honors. The final regular season game for the Cardinal would come against the #4-ranked Cal Bears, their bitter rival, the first victory at Stanford would be a premonition of what would be to come in this matchup this time hosted at Cal, with his rendition of the famed game that has long been dubbed “The Big Splash”, Stanford would come out victorious again with a 13-9 scoreline. Stanford would take an early first quarter lead, coming in part through a 6-on-5 power play conversion from Max who would receive the ball on the right side of the power play, several strong fakes would ensue as he would unload a beautiful nearside shot off the near post past the field blocker and goalkeeper, cementing his name into the history of one of college water polo’s most famed rivalries. Due to Cal’s inability to beat any of their MPSF rivals in UCLA, USC or Stanford throughout the regular season, it meant that heading into the MPSF championships, Stanford would be in a strong position to ensure they are headed to the NCAA National Championships as long as they don’t end up fourth in the tournament and Cal doesn’t win. The MPSF Conference Championships would be held at Stanford, with the first game being on November 21st against Augustana College, a 25-7 thumping of the Illinois-based college would allow Stanford to play many of their players that had seen less playing time throughout the season. The following day Stanford would go into the semifinal set to contest against #2-ranked USC, however, once again the Trojans would prevail, a strong first half from USC would nearly see the SoCal giants topple as Stanford surged in the second half. The third-place match would once again see Stanford come up against their bitter rivals in Cal Berkeley, with the prior results likely cementing that Cal will be knocked out of NCAA National Championship contentions following the MPSF Conference Championships, Stanford would be the last dagger in an awful season for the Bears as Stanford would win 15-12 to win their third match up against the Cal Bears truly knocking them out of contentions. Stanford will be heading into the NCAA National Championships that begin on December 5th with a third matchup against UC Davis with their record standing overall at 17-7 their only losses being to UCLA and USC and their conference record standing at 2-4, for Max who had redshirted the previous year, it has been a whirlwind year of success, competing with the USA Junior team that earned a silver medal at the Junior World Championships and now coming into his own as one of Stanford’s premier shooters and playmakers, especially from the right hand side. Heading into this weekend Max’s season stands as such a +46.6 Performance Indicator (good for eighth on Stanford), 32 goals (good for fifth on Stanford), 17 assists (good for fifth on Stanford), 12 steals (good for seventh on Stanford).

Andras Beleznay (Jr., Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Andras provided strong center play for MIT with strong contributions across many games converting goals and drawing exclusions.

Lastly, we get to check in on our boys competing with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Andras Beleznay, the junior center from West Palm Beach and David Ranaudo, the freshman utility from Miami Lakes, have been important parts in helping the MIT Engineers to a strong NCAA season and earning a berth to the NCAA Division III National Championships that will be held this weekend. When we last heard from the two MIT guys, they had a tough outing at the Bruno Invite hosted by Brown University where they had beaten Wheaton College before dropping three match ups to Johns Hopkins, Chapman University and Pomona-Pitzer College on September 20th-21st. After a week of training and planning, on October 4th the Engineers would return to action traveling to Princeton to take on the #12-ranked Princeton Tigers, a heavy loss would ensue as the Tigers would take down MIT by a score of 10-20, Andras would insert himself on the scoresheet twice with goals in the first and third quarters with Princeton controlling the tempo of the game from the start. Later in the day, the Engineers would quickly drive back north to jump in the water in New Rochelle, New York for a game against Iona University, a 16-20 loss would see Andras score another goal from the center position. The Engineers would finally return to the winner circle the following day after staying in New York another day, they would take on Long Island University to a firm 16-11 win, where Andras would continue his scoring streak, converting another goal in the second quarter helping to snap a rough five-game losing streak. The Engineers would then return to action the following weekend for more NWPC conference competition as first they would travel to Providence, Rhode Island to once again take on the Brown Bears to take on a 12-18 loss which would be followed up the next day with travel back up to Boston to take on #17-ranked Harvard University where the Crimson Red would hand MIT a 14-19 loss, Andras would return to his goalscoring form out of center, taking a goal on in the third quarter attempting to spark a comeback for MIT. MIT’s rough patch of form would continue the following weekend, as they would go to the Harvard Invitational only to drop all three matches against Salem University by a score of 9-13, another to Wagner College by a score of 7-13 and the final one to #20-ranked George Washington University by a score of 10-17, Andras would continue to tally his goals with a goal in the games against Wagner and George Washington. A week off would have hoped to help MIT get themselves back on track, however, a pair of home games against #18-ranked Harvard University and #20-ranked Brown University would only compound the losses for MIT, Harvard would handle the Engineers 7-14 with Andras providing a second quarter goal in a rough outing for the Engineers, the latter game against Brown would be a stronger outing, though still would bring MIT another loss by a 10-14 scoreline. MIT would finally return to winning form the following weekend at home as they played host to Iona University who they would defeat 16-14 and then against Long Island University who would push MIT to double overtime to earn a 14-12 victory, Andras would add another goal to his strong season. However, the victory lap would be short-lived as Princeton would come to town the following day for the regular season finale, the Tigers would take down MIT with a 10-19 score, even a second half hat-trick from Andras would not be enough for the Engineers as they took the week after the loss to begin preparations for the NWPC Conference Championships on November 21st-23rd. MIT would travel to Brown University who hosted the conference championship tournament, there the Engineers would line up across a familiar foe in their first game against the Iona University Gaels, MIT would start the tournament strong with a resounding 15-11 victory, Andras would provide a crucial second quarter goal to help MIT take hold of the game after Iona had taken a first quarter lead. The next two games would be rough outings against too familiar ranked opponents; first Princeton would once again handle MIT 7-17 and the following day in the third-place match MIT would fight valiantly against the Brown University Bears but would fall 11-13 to finish fourth in the NWPC Conference, Andras would help MIT to a strong start with a first quarter goal, however, the lead would not last as Brown pulled away slowly in the latter quarters. With conference play finished the MIT record stands at 8-20 with a 3-7 conference play record, however, MIT had still earned their spot in the NCAA Division III National Championships that will take place this weekend, MIT will travel to Claremont, California to take on Pomona-Pitzer College in the semifinal match. Andras and David will be headed into the tournament with their season’s numbers as listed below. Andras would finish the season as one of MIT’s top producers with a +9.5 performance indicator value, 23 goals, 1 assist, 17 drawn exclusions, 8 steals and 4 field blocks, while for David in his first season at MIT would have a +7 performance indicator value, 5 goals, 2 assists, 11 exclusions drawn, 4 steals, 2 field blocks.

We want to congratulate our boys on their successful seasons and continued success in their studies.

And good luck to Andras, David and Max as they prepare to compete in the national championships this coming weekend.

We are proud of you boys!