The Carleton Ravens men’s water polo team competed at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Water Polo Championship this weekend, earning the title over the University of Toronto (U of T) to conclude the 2015 season.
The Ravens opened their season earlier this fall at the Carleton Fall Invitational on Oct. 16-18.
“It went well,” said Ravens head coach Michel Roy. “I was coaching a bunch of young guys. We have a team that finished second last year so they were good.”
This season was the first for Roy as head coach of the Ravens. He has been coaching water polo over the course of 42 years, spending time as a coach at the Division 1 NCAA level and with several Canadian national teams.
The Ravens won two of three games during the weekend, but lost star player Ogie Gutovic to injury.
“He’s been our best player the past four to five years at Carleton,” Roy said of Gutovic. “That was a big loss, after that we had a bunch of younger guys, and we will also be together next year,” he said. “The idea was to establish a system and go with that with the guys we have. The guys put the commitment into it.”
“In those early season tournaments it’s all about getting comfortable together as a team, figuring out who our starting line-up is going to be and getting experience for those guys that didn’t play that much before coming to university,” said third-year player Austin Stanton.
Two weeks later, the Ravens traveled to Kingston to compete in the Queen’s Invitational on Oct. 31 to Nov. 1.
The Ravens played four games over the course of the weekend, including two against a fiercely competitive U of T squad.
“We put together, at that point, the best quarter of the season so far,” Stanton said. “We went up 5-0 against U of T on Sunday and we were able to hold on for the victory so we kind of proved to ourselves that weekend, we can stick to the system that Michel [Roy] has implemented and we can win some games against U of T . . . It gave us some confidence going into the OUA final.”
The Ravens took both games by a score of 9-8, while also cruising to a 23-4 win over Queen’s, and a 17-6 win over McMaster.
To cap off the season, the Ravens competed in the OUA Water Polo Championship from Nov. 27-29 in Hamilton.
The Ravens defeated the University of Ottawa 9-7 on Saturday to earn a berth in the OUA Championship final, and the chance to avenge last year’s loss to U of T.
“It came down to the last two minutes of the game, we were losing 7-5,” said Ravens player Mohamed Galal.
“But we came back and tied the game in the last minute. We won in dramatic fashion by one goal in the shootout,” he said.
“I’ve coached for a long time, I’ve seen many games and won many games and national championships, but this one comes down as one of the best I’ve seen,” Roy said. “The people in the stands were great, they were very excited.”
Ravens goaltender Yorek Hurrelmann made several key saves in the shootout and secured the victory for his team.
“We proved the best strength of our team is counterattack and speed,” Roy said. “Compared to other teams that rely on talent and individual abilities, we focused on the system, the counterattack system, and reaction time. We focused on the teamwork and team system and it worked quite well, so I’m pleased.”
