LOUDONVILLE, New York – Despite being down by four goals with just over 13 minutes left to play, the Marist water polo team fought back and earned a thrilling 13-11 2OT comeback win over the Iona Gaels on Sunday afternoon.
With the win, the Red Foxes move 12-11 (3-1 MAAC) and are over .500 for the first time since the 2015 season when the team finished 20-14 overall. The win also marks the third overtime victory for the team this season. Marist is 3-0 in OT games this year.
Senior co-captain Amanda Amorosa led the Red Foxes offensively, finishing with three goals, four assists, one drawn kickout and one steal. With her fourth assist at 0:37 in 1OT, Amorosa recorded her 160th career assist, passing Ana-Lena Hathaway (12-15) for 1st all-time in program history. Senior co-captain Jocelyn McQuade chipped in three goals, one assist and one steal and senior Nastassia McGlothlin finished with three goals, one drawn kick out and one steal. Freshman Justine Castro chipped in one goal, four assists, one drawn kickout and one steal, sophomore Ariana Singer finished with one goal, one drawn kickout and one steal, freshman Anais Mathes and sophomore Susan Cantoni each chipped in one goal and freshman Bree Marmion recorded two assists.
In goal, sophomore Hope Vickers and junior Jessica Hermosillo split time in net, finishing with seven goals against and two saves and four goals against and seven saves respectively.
Amorosa gave the Red Foxes the early lead when she found the back of the net just one minute into the game, however, the Gaels answered back 1:20 later on the man advantage when Darby Nevins scored to even the score at 1-1. Hannah Schultz gave Iona the lead just over four minutes later, Amorosa tied it up with her second with 0:36 left in the opening quarter and Schultz regained the lead for the Gales with 0:22 remaining in the first to take a 3-2 Iona lead into the break.
Back-to-back goals by Schultz at 7:05 and 3:39 left in the second made it 5-2 Gaels before Castro found the back of the net from Amorosa to trim the deficit to 5-3 at the half.
Nevins netted her second just 26 seconds into the second half to give Iona a 6-3 lead but just over a minute later, McQuade made it a two goal game with a goal off an assist from Marmion with 6:23 left in the quarter. Back-to-back goals by Devika Joshi and Schultz made it a 8-4 Gael lead before McGlothlin netted her first off an assist from Amorosa at 3:50 left in the quarter. A goal by Cantoni, assisted by Castro made it 8-6 Iona but Schultz answered with her fifth 18 seconds later to regain the three goal lead at 9-6 entering the fourth quarter.
Back-to-back-to-back goals by Amorosa and McQuade (2) tied the game with 3:47 left to play but Kayla Allen regained the lead for Iona just 15 seconds later. McGlothlin tied it up at 10-10 with 3:06 left in regulation before neither team was able to score and the game headed into two three minute sudden death overtime periods.
Just 27 seconds into the first overtime, Rebecca Koshy gave the Gaels the 11-10 lead but Mathes tied the game back up with a goal 12 seconds later. Singer gave the Red Foxes their first lead since Amorosa's opening one minute into the game and McGlothlin gave Marist an insurance goal 27 seconds into the second overtime as the Red Foxes held on for the 13-11 2OT victory.
