Hillbilly Champs 2006

GVSU Men’s Water Polo kicked the ’06 season off the same way they ended the ’05 season.  The team finished the weekend in Knoxville, TN 4-0 and was crowned champion of the 2006 Hillbilly Classic at the University of Tennessee.  Returning captain Matt Leskovar was the teams leading scorer over the weekend with 13 goals.  He was named Tournament MVP.  Other top scorers included Chris Posthumus and Joey Szymanski with 10 goals each and freshman Nenad Ciric with 9.
Grand Valley started slow with a 10-4 win against Purdue, but began to pour it on as the tournament progressed.  The team defeated South Florida by a margin of 18-9 and then Miami by a score of 13-6 to finish up pool play.  These wins placed GVSU in the championship game versus rival Notre Dame.  In the game, Grand Valley jumped out to a 6-2 lead after the first quarter and then really put the game out of reach in the second, outscoring the Irish 6-1 making it 12-3 at the half.  GVSU then coasted to a 17-7 win and first tournament championship of the season.
GVSU next travels to Michigan State University September 8-10 for the Spartan Invitational, where they hope to add to their now 28 game win streak.

By Josh Ahrendt