Pictured Above: Senior Matthew Miller
Boston, MA – The Wagner men's water polo team will play four games this weekend as part of the Harvard Invite. The Seahawks begin competition with a Friday night matchup with the Brown University Bears at 8:00 p.m. From there, the Green & White will play a doubleheader on Saturday, in squaring off against No. 14 Bucknell at 10:15 a.m. and conclude the day against MIT at 3:15. The weekend wraps up with a 1:00 p.m. start against the No. 20 St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers.
ABOUT WAGNER:
The Green & White will be looking to rebound after a midweek setback to the Iona Gaels. Wagner was paced by senior
Matthew Miller and freshman Olivér Fodor, who combined for 10 of the team's 12 goals, with Miller finding the back of the net six times.
ABOUT BROWN:
Brown enters the Harvard Invite with a record of 10-8 but, have posted a 2-3 mark so far in October. All three defeats have come against Top-20 programs (No. 17 St. Francis Brooklyn, No. 18 Princeton, and No. 10 Harvard).
The Bears have faced off against the Seahawks twice already this season, defeating the Green & White by three goals in each matchup. All-time, Brown leads the series, 6-1. However, the lone blemish on Brown's record comes from a loss season at this event, the only other time the two teams have met in Boston.
Brown is led by senior attacker James Thygesen, who is pacing the team in goals (43) and assists (24). Three other Bears have also crossed the 20-goal threshold: Leo Berkman (26), Cole Atwell (20), and Matt Simko (20). In goal, Brown relies on junior Riad Hallal who has stopped 128 shots, while only allowing 118 goals against.
ABOUT NO. 14 BUCKNELL:
The Bison enter play this weekend with an impressive 12-2 overall record, with their lone setbacks coming against ranked opposition (No. 16 Fordham Rams and No. 9 UC-San Diego).
Bucknell and Wagner have met once so far this season as the Bison went home with a 17-5 triumph over the Green & White 17-5.
All-time, these two programs have met seven times, with Bucknell winning every contest. However, the two teams have met in Boston on two occasions, a 6-5 Bucknell victory in 2017 and 10-8 win in 2018.
Bucknell is led by 2018 Second-Team All-American Rade Joksimovic, who leads the team in both goals (64) and assists (23). He is joined by two other 30+ goal scorers in Logan Schofield (31) and Andu Vlasceanu (33).
ABOUT MIT:
MIT comes into the three-day invitational with an overall record of 6-5. The Engineers have dropped four of its last five games in October. MIT earned an 18-11 win back on September 7 at the Bruno Classic, the first victory of the season for the Engineers.
MIT is led by Miller Geschke, who has tallied a team-best 41 goals and 17 assists in 11 games. Geschke also leads MIT in steals with 19 and exclusions drawn with 13. Hayden Niederreiter is the Engineers' first option in cage, starting in 10 games and has rcorded 86 saves for a .417 save percentage.
ABOUT NO. 20 ST. FRANCIS BROOKLYN:
The Terriers are 11-5 and are looking to snap a two-game skid after falling to No. 10 Harvard and No. 18 Princeton. SFBK has picked up two wins against the Seahawks thus far this year by an average of 2.5 goals, as Wagner was edged 10-9 back on September 8 and fought valiantly in a 17-13 setback on September 13.
St. Francis Brooklyn has a quartet of offensive players that have combined for 116 of the teams 215 goals on the season, in addition to notching 30 of the team's 79 assists. Ivan Stefanovic leads the team with 34 goals and is tied for the team lead with 13 assists. Dominick Hevesi is second on the team with 32 goals, followed by Vladimir Mickic with 27 and William Lapkin with 23.
In goal, the Terriers have used four different goalies on the season. Leading the group in minutes is senior Viktor Klauzer who earned Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Defender of the Week back on September 17.
NEXT UP FOR WAGNER
The Seahawks will be back in the pool on Wednesday, October 23, as the Green & White will square off against No. 16 Fordham at 7:30 pm in Bronx, NY.
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