The men's water polo club team hoped it would be celebrating a title this weekend along with the rest of Penn State.

Minor circumstances and mistakes, however, quickly added up against it, and the team placed 12th overall in the men's National Collegiate Club Championships over the weekend.

The team played its first match on Friday against Florida International University. It fell 7-5 to FIU and was bumped into the loser brackets. The players turned it around, though, and beat Iowa State, 11-6, that same night before losing, 9-7, in their third match to Miami (OH) on Saturday. The team capped off the weekend with a 4-3 loss to Middlebury College on Sunday.

"Place-wise, we didn't place as well as we thought we would," senior defensive hole set Robbie Thomas said. "We got our opportunities but sometimes we weren't there. All of our losses were by two goals."

The team had been preparing for this weekend since 1998, the last time it went to nationals. Coming off a tournament that gave it the Mid Atlantic Division title and a place in nationals, the members of the team were confident that they would be strong enough to overcome their opponents. However, a change in pool size seemed to disrupt the team's confidence, something that it never got back.

"We were not taking full advantage of our chances. The new environment and the whole size of the pool intimidated us," sophomore offensive hole set Brad Hartman said. "I would have liked to have done better than we did. I think we did under the given circumstances. We learned a lot from the weekend by just watching the other teams."

This was the last time that the seniors played together. Many of them have been on the same team since they were in high school and have lived through both good times in high school and hard times in collegiate water polo. The past three years have been tough on the seniors, since they have not been able to reach nationals.

"I had a great time with these guys, both playing and hanging out. I view the season as a huge success," Thomas said. "It was a great way to end these four years."

Looking forward to next year, the team is confident that it will again reach nationals and place higher than it did this year.

"I expect us to make nationals again and expect us to learn a lot from this years experiences," Hartman said. "We are going to lose a couple of guys, but we are going to get a couple if our senior leaders back."