Lewisburg, PA – The #20 Wagner (9-7) women's water polo team held off #15 Princeton (4-1) 9-5 and downed Penn St. Behrend (0-2) 15-0 in the opening day of the Bucknell Invite.
Wagner 9 Princeton 5 (Game Sheet)The game served as a rematch of sorts with Wagner and Princeton facing off in last season NCAA Tournament. The Seahawks entered the scoring column first off a man-up opportunity goal from senior co-captain
Megan Rodriguez (Danville, CA. San Ramon Valley) as she connected on a pass from sophomore
Kimberly Watson (Pointe-Claire, Quebec/ John Rennie). The score came with 5:58 left in the first quarter and was the first tally from either side. Morgan Hallock found the back of the net for the tigers with 3:38 remaining in the opening stanza before Rodriguez would set up
Elise Begg (Newbury Park, CA/ Newbury) for a strike with seconds left in the quarter to give Wagner a 2-1 advantage.
Play in the second quarter would serve to be a defensive battle until the later stages of the period when Princeton's Pippa Temple would score with 2:28 left. The Seahawks responded with two late goals before the half from senior duo
Lily Doerfler (Annapolis, MD/ Broadneck) and
Jess Lundgren (Queensland, Australia/ Mountain Creek). The Green & White entered halftime holding a 4-2 advantage over the Tigers.
Princeton would outscore the Seahawks 3-2 in the third quarter to pull within one goal entering the final period. Hallock would tally her second for the Tigers in the stanza with Halley Wan and Sydney Stave also scoring. Rodriguez and Doerfler would each connect on their second goals of the contest as Lundgren and Watson each registered an assist.
Wagner would control play in the fourth quarter finishing on three shot attempts while holding the Princeton offense in check. Junior goalie
Emily Riddle (Edmonton, Alberta/ Dr. E.P. Scarlett) would make multiple key stops to lead the defensive effort and her way to recording five saves in the contest. Lundgren tallied twice in the final period to give her a hat trick as Doerfler fired home a strike as well to give her three tallies for the game.
The win marks the first time in program history that the Seahawks have defeated Princeton.
Wagner 15 Penn St. Behrend 0 (Game Sheet)The Seahawks offense was clicking on all cylinders in their second contest of the afternoon connecting for 15 scores. Sophomore goalie
Anna Ward (Grayslake, IL/ Mundelein) was key in net for the Seahawks as she accumulated nine saves in the contest.
Lundgren recorded five points in the opening quarter as she tallied three goals while passing out two helpers. Freshman
Erica Hardy (Montreal, Quebec/ St. Thomas) found the back of the net twice in the first while Begg,
Gabryel Oloapu (Auckland, New Zealand/ Diocesan) and
Nicole Wallace (Harae, Zimbabwe/ Chisipite Senior School) each added a score apiece.
Wallace would score twice more in the second to give her a hat trick with Watson and freshman
Sarah Limanni (Mohnton, PA/ Governor Mifflin) tallying scores of their own.
Limanni found the back of the net in third quarter as Oloapu hammered in a goal in the fourth and freshman
Natalie Kayton (Agoura, CA/ Agoura) would score on a man-up chance in the final period. The final score was 15-0 in favor of the Seahawks.
The Green & White are back in action tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. against host Bucknell.
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