Poughkeepsie, NY – The #15 Wagner women's water polo team completed a historic regular season that included a perfect 16-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) record with a 14-5 victory over #25 Marist on Saturday afternoon.
#15 Wagner (14) vs. #25 Marist (5)
The final regular season game of the Seahawks began with an opening sprint victory for junior
Skye Nankervis. In a back-and-forth first quarter, both teams traded two goals each as senior
Sofia Diaz Alvarez led the Wagner attack with two goals.
The second quarter followed suit except fifth-year senior
Malia Josephson tallied two goals in the second quarter as the game entered the first half deadlocked at four.
The Green & White put a stamp on the contest in the third quarter as they opened the second half on a 4-0 run from four different goal scorers in the first 2:14 of the frame. Sophomore's
Andrea Arias and
Mar Navarro tallied a goal each during the run while
Skye Nankervis and classmate
Abbey Simshauser also found the back of the net during the run. The Seahawks concluded the quarter outscoring the Red Foxes 7-1 and went to the final stanza with an 11-5 advantage.
Wagner outscored Marist 3-0 in the final frame as Arias tallied two goals and
Mar Navarro scored once to lead the Seahawks to a 14-5 victory.
Andrea Arias led the Wagner attack with four goals on 11 shots while
Sofia Diaz Alvarez chipped in a hat trick on eight shots and three steals. Senior goalkeeper
Kristina Bell stopped 11 shots in the victory.
Conference Success
The Seahawks end the 2022 regular season with a 92-5 record since 2014 in conference play and conclude the regular season with a 16-0 mark in MAAC contests. The 2014 season was the first of six consecutive MAAC Championships for Wagner. Prior to the run beginning in 2014, the Seahawks appeared in the MAAC Championship game 2011, 2012, and 2013 but fell to Iona all three times.
The Seahawks have appeared in 13 MAAC Championship games while claiming a conference leading nine titles. Prior to the 2021 season, either Wagner, Marist, or Iona has appeared in every championship since 2003 and those three schools are the only three to ever capture a title.
In 2016, 2017, and 2018 Wagner went unbeaten in conference play as the Seahawks went 12-0 in 2016 and 14-0 in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, Wagner finished the conference schedule with a 14-1 record and a 2-0 record in 2020 as the season was cut short due to COVID-19 before the Seahawks opted out of the 2021 season.
The Seahawks last conference loss came in the 2019 regular season finale on a forfeit against Marist. Before that forfeit, Wagner's last MAAC defeat came 1,464 days before on April 11, 2015, against the Red Foxes.
The Seahawks wrapped up the regular season title on Friday, April 15 with a 21-4 victory over St Francis Brooklyn and wrapped up its fourth perfect conference record since 2016 after today's victory over Marist.
Winning Ways
From January 29 to March 2, the Seahawks won 15 consecutive games which matched the second longest winning streak in program history as Wagner won 17 consecutive games in 2017 and 2018.
The Green & White concluded the regular season with a 15-game winning streak from March 12 to April 16 and have never had multiple winning streaks of double-digit victories in a single season in program history until this season.
Wagner began the season 2-2 through the first four games of the season and proceeded to launch a 30-1 record in the final 31 games of the season, all of the Wagner losses came against nationally ranked opponents.
A Look Ahead
The Seahawks will travel back to Poughkeepsie, NY to participate in the MAAC tournament along with LIU, Marist, and La Salle.
The Seahawks will take on the #4 seed La Salle in the first semifinal on Saturday, April 23 at 12:00 P.M. while #2 LIU and #3 Marist will square off in the second semifinal at 3:00 P.M.
