POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK – The Marist water polo team (20-13) defeated Villanova (19-15) by a score of 15-9 in the semifinals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Water Polo Championships on Saturday afternoon. The Red Foxes move on to the championship game where they will face the no. 2 seeded Wagner Seahawks.
Sophomore Amanda Amorosa (Montreal, Quebec) led the Red Foxes with four goals, and had two assists. Senior Jessica Hamby (Sacramento, California) added three goals, and senior Alison Hamby (Sacramento, California) tallied two goals of her own. Senior captain Anna-Lena Hathaway, junior captain Brooke Else (Lansdale, Pennsylvania) and sophomore Nastassia McGlothlin (Mission Viejo, California) each had two goals and one assist.
Hathaway scored the first goal of the game early in the first quarter giving the Red Foxes a 1-0 lead. Villanova scored a goal a little over two minutes later to tie it at one apiece. Some more back and forth scoring ended the first quarter with a score of 3-3. McGlothlin and Amorosa scored the other two goals for the Red Foxes in the first quarter. Marist built up a two goal lead early in the second quarter with goals from Hathaway and A. Hamby. Villanova scored the next two goals to knot the game up at 5-5. The Red Foxes took an 8-5 lead into halftime on goals in the final minutes of the quarter from Amorosa, Else, and A. Hamby.
The Red Foxes extended their lead to 10-5 in the third quarter with a goal from J. Hamby at the 7:16 mark, and an Amorosa goal with 5:06 left in the quarter. Marist got three goals in the final 1:14 of the quarter from J. Hamby (2) and McGlothlin. The Wildcats had two goals of their own in the final 1:05 to give a 13-8 score in favor of the Red Foxes heading into the final quarter of play. Villanova would only manage one goal in the fourth to Marist's two. Else and Amorosa closed out the scoring for the Red Foxes and ended the game at 15-9.
Junior goalie Skyler Henry (San Diego, California) made some spectacular saves to help the Red Foxes secure their place in the championship match. Henry made 13 saves and gave up nine goals against in 32:00 minutes of play.
The Red Foxes will return to action on Sunday, April 26 when they play the Wagner Seahawks in the MAAC Water Polo Championship game. The match is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
