Score Sheet

Staten Island, NY – The No. 17 Wagner water polo team held off No. 20 Hartwick 16-15 in a nail-biting contest which featured everything from huge blocks to deep range scores in front of a raucous Seahawk crowd filled with former players and fans alike.

The national top 20 matchup of #17 Wagner and #20 Hartwick lived up to the billing as spectators witnessed a fast paced, high scoring affair that went down to the wire.

28 seconds into the game Hartwick jumped on the board first with a goal from freshman center Nicolina Mihajlovik, fore shading the type of game to come. The Hawks added another tally quickly to take an early 2-0 lead before two minutes had even been played.  

Sophomore goalie Emily Riddle (Edmonton, Alberta) had a key block to halt the Hawks attack chance before the Sehawks responded with four unanswered goals to swing the momentum clearly in their favor. Junior center Jess Lundgren whipped in a goal off a straight ahead look as a creased opened allowing her to riffle her attempt in off an assist from fellow junior Megan Rodriguez (Danville, CA/ San Ramon Valley) to get the offense on track. Senior co-captain Jessica Burdge registered two goals within a minute of each other, tailing at the 3:26 and 2:56 marks off assists from Michelle Greenough (Davis, CA/ Davis) and Kimberly Watson (Pointe-Claire, Quebec/ John Rennie) with the first a beautiful lob shot over the goalies arms. Lundgren added another in a man-up opportunity to give the Green & White a 4-2 advantage with 2:12 to play in the first quarter.

Hartwick rattled the cage with a strike with only 1:11 remaining before Burdge would score from deep with what could only be described as an assault on the cage as she ripped the ball into the upper right corner with only one second remaining on the clock, bringing the home crowd to its feet. The goal allowed the Seahawks to hold a 5-3 lead after the first quarter.

Play in the second quarter tipped slightly in the visiting team's favor as the Hawks would outscore the Green & white 3-2 in the stanza. Burdge added her fourth of the game while Rodriguez netted a smooth lefty finish both off set ups from Lundgren. The Green & White held a 7-6 advantage at the half after Riddle stopped several Hartwick scoring opportunities.

The pace of play picked right back up in the third period as the teams combined to score 10 goals. Burdge hit home first for the Green & White on a man-up goal. Back-to-back scores from Hartwick would tie the game at 8 with 5:47 left in the third after Zsofia Polak would connect on a penalty shot.

Lundgren would then go onto to score four of the next five Seahawk goals in the period off a bevy of moves around the net while assisting on Burdge's sixth goal of the contest, as the score read 13-10 in the favor of Wagner at the end of the third quarter.

The Green & White controlled played in the beginning of the final stanza, maintaining their three goal advantage with the score 15-12 and only 2:42 remaining in the game. Junior center Lily Doerfler (Annapolis, MD/ Broadneck) finally connected after jockeying for position in front of the net all afternoon off an assist from Watson. Senior co-captain Rachel Burns (Auckland, New Zealand/ Diocesan) then whizzed a shot attempt by the goalies arm for the Seahawks 15th goal.

Hartwick rallied with a man-up goal from Polak and an even strength goal from Mihajlovik to close the gap to one with 1:44 lingering on the game clock.

Greenough responded with a clutch score on a close in skip shot off a nice pass from Doerfler to give the Seahawks a 16-14 advantage with 1:25 remaining.

Hartwick would tally with five seconds remaining before the Seahawks killed the clock as the final read 16-15 in favor of Wagner.

The Seahawks improve to 6-2 on the season as Hartwick drops to 6-9.

Wagner Goals
Jessica Burdge 6
Jess Lundgren 6
Rachel Burns 1
Lily Doerfler 1
Michelle Greenough 1
Megan Rodriguez 1

Highlights



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