NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Iona College men’s water polo team completed regular season action Sunday with a pair of CWPA North matchups at the Hynes Center Pool. The Gaels opened the day with a 14-9 victory over MIT before falling to Harvard 11-9 in the second game.
Senior Jake Lloyd scored 11 goals on the day, pushing his nation leading total to 89 goals on the year. Seniors Ian Thompson and Kyle Elmore scored three goals apiece over the two games.
Against MIT, Iona led throughout as the Gaels jumped out to an early 2-0 on goals by Thompson and Lloyd. After MIT cut the lead in half, Iona ended the first quarter on a 3-1 run. Lloyd’s third goal of the period with five seconds remaining gave the Gaels a 5-2 advantage after one.
In the second, Iona scored three times as Elmore, Thompson and classmate Rafael Romero found the net to give the Gaels an 8-4 advantage at half.
Lloyd registered two of the Maroon & Gold’s four goals in the third quarter as Iona opened up a 12-6 lead after three quarters. In the fourth, MIT rallied for three scores but tallies by Thompson and Lloyd helped the Gaels pulled out the five goal victory.
Against Harvard, Lloyd scored five goals while senior James Ramaley, Elmore, junior Zach Presto and sophomore Hudson Grieve scored once.
In the first quarter, Iona erased a 1-0 deficit with four straight to take a three goal lead. Harvard responded with two late tallies to cut the Gaels lead to one, 4-3, after one.
The Crimson evened the score early in the second quarter, before the teams traded goals the rest of the period, leading to a 6-6 tie at half.
In the third, the teams scored two goals each. Three goals by Harvard, to Iona’s one, in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference.
Prior to the start of the second game, the team recognized seniors Lloyd, Thompson, Elmore, Ramaley, Romero, Mike Pufunt, Nicholas Joslyn and Eric Corley. The Gaels hold the fourth seed in the CWPA Northern Championship, set for Nov. 8-9, and take on No. 5 Fordham in the first round at 9:30 am.