Week Two of NCAA Season brings more results for South Florida Athletes

The second weekend of the NCAA season passed recently, two of our club alumni competed while three had the weekend off. With Connecticut College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) both having the week off it meant that Carson Neidart, Andras Beleznay and David Ranaudo would all have time to focus on training and school work. However, it still meant that two others; Gregory Nordheim and Max Zelikov would see action in the water.

Gregory Nordheim, competing for Bucknell University would compete at the Princeton Invitational, however, would see a rough weekend with three losses all against ranked opponents. The Bucknell Bisons jumped in the pool on September 6th for their first game of the weekend against the nation’s top-ranked team and last year’s national champions, UCLA Bruins, though the Bisons started strong, keeping the game close after the first quarter with a 3-3 scoreline, the California powerhouse soon showed why they are regarded as a top team in the nation by blowing the game open, the final score being a 24-10 Bruin victory. Following the tough loss to the Bruins, Bucknell and Greg, would start the next day against the #16-ranked Harvard Crimson, a rematch of their season opener the prior week, the northeastern showdown would once again prove to be an affair that would require extended gametime. An explosive first quarter would see the Bisons and Crimson end the first quarter with an unbelivable 6-6 score, an early run two-goal run at the start of the second quarter for Bucknell would be retaliated with Harvard’s own three-goal run winning the quarter 3-2, the third quarter would be a replica of the second quarter with Harvard winning the quarter 3-2 and taking a two-goal lead into the fourth quarter. However, in the fourth quarter Bucknell mounted the comeback, while Harvard converted four goals, Bucknell would explode like they had in the first quarter, finding the Harvard net six times to tie the game and force overtime, though overtime proved too much for the Bisons, Harvard would score four goals and finish the game with a final score of 20-16. The last game of the weekend for Bucknell would come against the #9-ranked Princeton Tigers, the affair would be a tail of two halves, while Bucknell was down after the first half, they only found themselves down by three goals by a score of 8-5, though in the third quarter the hosting Princeton Tigers would blow the game wide open firing seven goals past the Bucknell goalkeeper and four more goals would fly past in the fourth quarter, the Tigers’ defense would lock down hard on Bucknell only allowing four goals in the second half of the game ending the game 19-9 in favor of the hosts.

While Greg did not statistically put himself on the stat sheet, his strong work at center defense at stretches of the game helped the Bisons to find stretches of play where they found themselves battling against some of the nation’s top teams.

What comes next for Greg and Bucknell? A weekend off to focus on training and school, then the Lewisburg-based team will finally play their first home games of the season as they will be playing hosts at the Bucknell Invitational on September 20-21st, where they will be playing against Salem University, the Air Force Academy, east coast powerhouse Fordham University and will close out the tournament playing against Wagner College.

While Greg and Bucknell were testing their mettle against some of the nation’s top squads on the west coast Stanford University and Max Zelikov would continue their start to the season competing at the UC Davis Aggie Roundup, a one-day tournament that would give them two opponents, first a morning game against #10-ranked UC Davis and then an afternoon game against American River College that would both become victories to continue Stanford’s undefeated start to the season with a 3-0 record. The morning game saw a close game in the first half with the Stanford Cardinal only able to pull away by two goals securing a 4-2 lead, however, a staunch defense would take the pressure off the #4-ranked Stanord crew that would find their groove in the third quarter, winning the third quarter by a score of 4-1, taking a 8-3 lead into the fourth quarter would provide them with the cushion to battle UC Davis’ three goals, Stanford would convert four more goals of their own to double UC Davis’ total and win the game 12-6. Max would continue his strong start to the season, providing Stanford with the 11th goal of the game in the fourth quarter, his fourth goal of the young season as well as providing an assist on the second goal for Stanford with an assist to teammate, Botond Balogh. The second game of the day became a goal-fest quickly with Stanford converting a minimum of five goals in all four quarters, six goals in the first and third quarters and five in the second and fourth quarters and winning both halves of the game with a score of 11-5. Max would continue to tally up his statistics early in the season converting two goals on two shots for his fifth and sixth goals of the season in three games, providing another assist as well as earning a drawn exclusion, his first of his career. Max’s first goal would come about halfway through the first quarter after Max would draw an exclusion himself, he would convert the 6-on-5 opportunity that would provide Stanford with a 3-0 lead quickly mid-way through the first quarter, his second goal would provide the restart Stanford needed after allowing American River to convert two goals, Max would convert a goals to push the score back to 7-3 with both teams at even strength. Max would provide his assist in the third quarter spotting teammate, Orestis Zervoudakis, who would convert to bring Stanford’s lead to 16-8.

With a 3-0 record to kick off the season and a victory against a top-10 ranked opponent, Stanford will look to continue their early season momentum with a pair of individual games this coming weekend. First they will take on the current #18-ranked team in the nation, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos on Friday, September 12th, after a day rest they will then travel further south to play against the #12-ranked team in NCAA, the UC San Diego Tritons on Sunday, September 14th. The game against UC San Diego will be livestreamed at 12 PM Pacific Time or 3 PN EST and later be available on demand on ESPN+. Folllowing another two game stint, Stanford will then travel south to Los Angeles again for the MPSF Invitational on September 19th-21st, followed by a single game against top-10 ranked San Jose State University at San Jose on September 26th and finally Stanford will begin a series of home games at their home pool beginning by hosting top-ranked opponent, Pepperdine University on September 28th.

Nice job to all of our competing athletes and we hope your season continues well!