Marist water polo traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Wolverine Invitational this past weekend and split their four matches.
Play started on Saturday with matchups against Indiana (15th-ranked) and Salem University. Marist (3-5 record, 25th ranked) lost the first game to Indiana 15-8 but took their second game against Salem 22-7. On Sunday, Marist split the day again with a 20-7 win against St. Francis University (PA) and a 15-5 loss against Michigan (10th-ranked).
Marist started the tournament off with a back-and-forth match against Indiana. The Red Foxes have not defeated the Hoosiers since 2015 when Marist beat them in Bloomington by one goal (9-8).
Marist opened this year’s matchup with a power-play goal from junior center Ella Baumgarten with 6:42 left in the first. But the Hoosiers retaliated fast with a goal from senior attacker Sophie Wazzan. A minute and 44 seconds later, graduate student Zoe Crouch gave Indiana the lead.
Nearly a minute later, the Red Foxes were a man up and junior utility Victoria Padilla assisted fellow junior attack Liana Hunt for the Marist equalizer. By halftime, the Hoosiers led 8-6.
In the third quarter, the Hoosiers scored three goals, whereas Marist only responded once.
Beginning the fourth quarter the score with an 11-7 lead, Indiana mirrored their performance from the third quarter. The Red Foxes only added one goal with 4:56 remaining in the game from sophomore Paige Naegle off a pass from freshman Samantha Bentley, while the Hoosiers scored four times in the quarter. Ultimately, Indiana took the game 15-8.
Despite the loss to Indiana, sophomore goalie Inés Sánchez stepped up big for the Red Foxes, tallying a season-high nine saves against the Hoosiers. For the entire tournament, she accumulated a total of 30 saves across four games.
A familiar problem plagued the Red Foxes’ during this match: not taking enough shots. Indiana ended the game with 35 shots, while Marist fell short with 28. Marist will face off against Indiana again next weekend at the Bruno Classic on Feb. 3 in Cambridge, MA.
The second game of the day for the Red Foxes was against Salem University and the Marist was ready to win.
Naegle won possession for Marist to begin on offense, giving her team the momentum they needed. With 6:01 left in the first quarter, attacker junior Rachel Dean scored the first goal for Marist.
Two minutes later, Naegle scored off an assist from sophomore attack Lela McCarroll on a powerplay giving Marist a two-goal lead.
By the end of the first quarter, the score was 5-2 in favor of Marist, and the Red Foxes were not letting the Tigers get back into this one. Marist ended the game with 12 different players scoring. Hunt ended the game with three goals and two assists, and Naegle finished with five goals.
Marist won 22-7 and outshot Salem by four.
The Red Foxes headed into Sunday with some momentum and their first game coming against St. Francis University.
The game started with SFU gaining possession and back-and-forth shots between the two teams. The first shot came from McCarrol, who was denied by the Red Flash’s junior goalie Isabel Lumley.
The first goal of the game went in with 5:58 remaining in the first from St. Francis sophomore utility Sarah Hartwell. Marist answered 21 seconds later with a penalty shot from freshman attacker Kendell De Beer. Exactly 21 seconds later, Dean found the back of the net for Marist, putting them up by one.
By the end of the second quarter, Marist led 10-4 and held on from there winning 20-7.
Sánchez ended the game with eight saves. Once again, more than 10 players scored for Marist, including two players who secured a hat trick (McCarroll and De Beer). Marist also outshot SFU 36-21.
Marist went into their final game of the weekend against the home team, 10th-ranked Michigan, knowing it would not be an easy matchup.
The Red Foxes have played the Wolverines 14 times in program history. Their first matchup dates back to 2004 when Michigan won 14-2. In the 14 times that these two programs have matched up, Marist has yet to win, and the 15th matchup ended the same as all the rest. Marist has historically averaged five goals against Michigan, and they continued this trend on Sunday.
Padilla and senior utility Kaylee Brard each scored one in the first quarter, and Marist finished the quarter trailing by two goals (4-2). But in the second quarter, Michigan scored five unanswered. The third quarter was almost the same script, but Dean scored with one second left off a penalty, making the score 14-3.
Michigan won 15-5 and finished the weekend 4-0 against their opponents.
The Red Foxes travel again this weekend to Cambridge Massachusetts to play in the Bruno Classic. The team will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges and Indiana University on Saturday and will round out the weekend against Bucknell University and the home team Harvard University (17) on Sunday.
Edited by Luke Sassa
Graphic by Cara Lacey; Photo from Marist Athletics
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