Navy scores with addition of Carlsbad grad Mulvey

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:41 AM PST ∞

Mike Mulvey will have made two cross-country trips in two weeks.

One was last weekend to spend Thanksgiving weekend with his family in Carlsbad.

The other is this weekend as he makes the flight from Annapolis, Md., to Northern California where No. 3-seeded Navy (29-5) will meet No. 2 California (26-) on Saturday in the NCAA Division I water polo semifinals at Stanford. USC (18-2), ranked No. 1, tackles No. 4 Loyola Marymount (13-15) in the other semifinal.

"I'm really happy with this season," said Mulvey, a junior who starred at Carlsbad High before choosing the Naval Academy.

"This is what the seniors on our team have been working toward.

"We all jumped on them."

While Mulvey tries to deflect the spotlight, he's one of the major reasons the Midshipmen will play for a national title.

He leads the team with 72 goals to go along with 22 assists, ranking 10th on Navy's single-season scoring list with 94 points.

He had a pair of goals as the Midshipmen beat St. Francis (N.Y.) to win the Eastern Championship and a berth in the NCAA championships.

He was named the College Water Polo Association's All-South player of the year.

A day later, he earned CWPA first-team All-East honors.

For his career, Mulvey has 204 points (140 goals, 64 assists) and needs six points to become the 12th Navy player to score 100 points in a season. He's on pace to post 300 career points, a mark attained by just five Navy players.

"I've been working hard and seem to be in the right place at the right time," Mulvey said. "I had a fair amount of goals in high school, but I've never been the go-to guy. But I've always been one of the guys who could score."

Mulvey said his experience playing at a high level for Carlsbad helped him make the jump to college.

"Playing for J.B. Feaster at Carlsbad, playing a great schedule in the spring and summer, was a lot like playing at the college level," Mulvey said. "So I kind of knew what to expect.

"At Carlsbad, they set the standards pretty high."

The standards are set pretty high at Navy, too.

Athletes get no academic breaks.

Mulvey said athletes get some help on road trips with laptops and tutors, but no one is given a grade because he's on a team.

"The academics here are the most challenging thing," Mulvey said. "With the academics, athletics and the military aspects at an academy -- it's not overwhelming -- but all together, it's tough.

"There were times I didn't think I could cut it. There were times I thought about quitting. But I never really wanted to leave."

Navy wasn't Mulvey's first choice.

He was recruited by most of the West Coast water polo powers -- California, UCLA, UC San Diego and Pepperdine.

"I went to a tryout camp at Annapolis, liked the area, so I looked into it and applied," Mulvey said. "I wasn't planning on going to Navy, but when I researched the academics, the benefits of graduating an officer, it sounded like a pretty good deal.

"The weather is different in the East, no doubt. I love the fall and spring, but the winters are freezing, and it's hot and humid in the summer."

Now, a little more than a year away from graduation, Mulvey -- a computer science major -- is thinking about the future.

"I'd like to be a surface warfare officer," Mulvey said. "That's a guy who works on a ship, launching missiles as well as launching and landing aircraft -- planes and helicopters."

He doesn't, however, want to get too far ahead of himself.

There is the immediate business of playing for a national title.

"It's going to be tough, but it's going to be fun," Mulvey said. "My parents, cousins and uncle are all planning on coming to Stanford.

"We have a lot of players from California on the team (including three from Coronado High, one from Bonita Vista and one from Mar Vista, six others from Southern California and four from Northern California), so hopefully we'll have a nice little cheering section."

Men's water polo