POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – For the 14th consecutive year, the #24 ranked Marist water polo team will play in the MAAC Championship semi-finals this upcoming weekend. The #2 seed Red Foxes will square off against the #3 Virginia Military Institute Keydets on Saturday at 2 PM at McCann Natatorium.
The winner of that game will then move on to the Championship game on Sunday (2 PM) against the winner of Saturday's first game, the #1 Wagner Seahawks and #4 Iona Gaels (12 PM). Prior to the title game, the loser's of Saturday's two games will play each other in the consolation game on Sunday (12 PM).
WHERE WE STAND:
Marist finished the 2017 regular season with an overall record of 19-13 (11-3 MAAC). The Red Foxes' 8-10 non-conference record and .594 overall winning percentage were both the best respectively since the 2013 season.
AMONG THE BEST:
The Red Foxes have been ranked nationally in the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Women's Varsity Top 25 Rankings for 13 consecutive weeks coming in at #24 in the latest Week 15 rankings. Marist reached its highest ranking at #23 for three straight weeks from Feb. 8th-22nd.
SERIES BREAKDOWN:
The two teams played twice during the regular season with Marist prevailing in the first meeting 15-8 on March 26th and VMI winning 17-15 2OT on April 15th.
In the Red Foxes win in March, sophomre Grace Doerfler and freshman Justine Castro each had a hat trick, while Amorosa chipped in two goals, six assists and four steals. Bailey Huddleston and Cecilya Lundy paced the Keydets with three goals and two goals and three steals respectively.
In the second to last game of the regular season VMI beat Marist in 2OT behind two goals from Natalie Rivas and Lundy with 1:25 left in the game to force overtime tied at 13-13. The two teams then traded goals in the first overtime period before senior co-captain Jocelyn McQuade gave the Red Foxes the 15-14 lead with 47 seconds left in the opening extra three minutes. However, three unanswered by Sophia DelBondio, Shelby Barkley and DelBondio again in the second overtime clinched the victory for the Keydets.
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
The Red Foxes received contributions from up and down the roster in 2017 with all 15 of the active field players scoring at least two goals in the team's 32 games for a total of 336 goals on the year (10.5 goals per game average). The scoring was also fairly evenly distributed across classes as Marist's seven freshman scored 24% (82) of the team's goals, the five sophomore's scored 32% (109), one of the juniors scored 7% (23) and the three seniors scored 36% (122). The Red Foxes were also pretty evenly matched in assists with the freshman contributing 23% (56), the sophomores contributing 22% (55), the junior class contributing to 15% (37) and the seniors helping on 39% (97) of the team's 248 goals scored off passes.
Senior co-captain Amanda Amorosa leads the team in shots (133), goals (61), assists (47), points (108) and is tied for first in games played (32). Junior co-captain Diana Carballo leads Marist with 52 steals and Doerfler is first in kickouts drawn with 36.
SCOUTING THE KEYDETS:
VMI will be making its first appearance in the tournament. This season the Keydets finished 22-6 (11-3 MAAC), marking the first time the team has reached 20 wins. Barkley broke the program's record for career goals scored and led the team in points (101) and goals (80). VMI was ranked at #25 nationally in the Week 14 CWPA poll.
SCOUTING WAGNER:
The #1 Seahawks clinched the regular season title for the second consecutive year, finishing the season at 23-10 and at 14-0, the second year in a row with an undefeated MAAC season. The Seahawks will look looks to take home the school's fourth consecutive MAAC Championship and are led by senior Erica Hardy who leads Wagener in overall points (129) and assists (61) and finished 68 goals. She ranks first in the MAAC in points and assists and sixth in goals.
SCOUTING IONA:
The #4 Gaels finished at 11-13 (8-6 MAAC). Iona is led by three-time MAAC Offensive Player of the Week Hannah Schultz who leads the Gaels in points (94) and goals (89). She ranks tied for first in the conference in goals and first in goals per game with 3.87.
TICKETS:
Tickets are avialble through Ticketeap and are $10 adult and $5 students and children for a day pass.
HOW TO FOLLOW:
A live stream of all four games this weekend will be available here with Geoff Brault on play-by-play and former Olympic gold medalist Betsey Armstrong providing color. Live stats for the Red Foxes game vs. VMI will be available here. Fans can also follow @MaristWP on twitter for in game updates.
