By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

SAEQUAN Miller and his Salem University Tigers water polo team have their sights set on contending for the conference title.

The Tigers will compete in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference West Championship, November 9-10 in Erie, Pennsylvania. As the No. 3 seed in the seven-team tournament, they will face sixth-seeded Washington and Jefferson College in the first round.

A first-round win advances the Tigers to a semi-final round later in the afternoon while a loss relegates them to the fifth-place game the following day.

At last month’s Collegiate Water Polo Association Division II Eastern Championship, the second-seeded Tigers fell to top-seeded Gannon University 14-13 in the championship game.

During the regular season, Miller appeared in 11 games of his freshman season and finished with 18 points. He scored 14 goals and added four assists with 12 steals.

His much heralded scholarship opportunity with Salem was considered a history-making move for Bahamian water polo.

Miller, the former CR Walker Knight, was a member of the 2013 CARIFTA bronze medallists, 2015 - 17 CARIFTA silver medallists and in his role as team captain, was named the team captain and MVP of the 2018 CARIFTA gold medallists.

“The exposure of water polo has done what we wanted, and that is to ultimately create more opportunities for these players,” national team head coach Laszlo Borbely said during the course of the water polo season. “Saequan Miller is probably the greatest example of that to this point. Saequan came up through the programme, has excelled at every level and now he has an opportunity to play at the collegiate level. He is really an inspiration to his peers, to the younger players around the club because they see where the game has taken him. Perhaps more importantly, the parents see the educational opportunities water polo can create. These are the stories we need to tell about the sport because the success goes well beyond the pool.”

Miller will be tested both in the pool and in the classroom this academic year.

In 2017, for a third consecutive year, the Salem University men’s water polo team finished with the top grade point average (GPA) in the nation for its sport, posting a 3.78.