NEW ROCHELLE, NY — After going ahead three times, and being tied four times with No. 15 Brown University, the Iona College men’s water polo team fell to a five-goal Bear rally in the final period resulting in a 11-9 Northeast Water Polo Association loss at Hynes Pool this afternoon.
Junior Zach Roper led the Gaels with five goals, while senior co-captain Hudson Grieve had two. Junior Pat Judge and freshman Quinn Lloyd scored one goal each.
In goal, freshman Jorge Andres Torres made nine saves on 35 Brown shots, and chipped in three steals. On defense, the Gaels made four steals, two by Roper, and blocked six shots. Iona drew nine Brown kick outs, while being ejected 13 times. Iona capitalized on three of six man-up opportunities, and Brown made three of 14.
Iona struck first as Roper took advantage of the Gaels first man-up opportunity with 1:25 gone in the match. The Gael defense held Brown scoreless until 1:56 left in the opening quarter when the Bears knotted the score at one. With 1:02 to go, Lloyd put the Gaels back up 2-1 going into the second period.
1:31 into the second period, Roper’s second goal upped the Iona lead to 3-1. Two straight Bears goals tied the match at three at the 5:25 mark. Judge gave Iona the lead back 4-3 with 2:04 to go. With 51 seconds left to intermission, Brown tied the match for the third time at four goals each.
Two straight Brown goals gave the visitors a 6-4 edge with 5:12 gone in the third quarter. Just 18 seconds later, Roper hit his third goal on a 6-5 advantage to put the Gaels within one. When Torres was ejected with 1:48, the Gael defense in the cage stopped two sure Bear goals. Roper’s fourth goal 31 seconds later tied the game at six going into the final period.
Brown opened the fourth period with three unanswered goals to lead 9-6 with 5:22 left. After Iona head coach Brian Kelly called timeout, Roper fired from eight meters with two ticks on the shot clock to make the score 9-7. After a Brown score was waved off for an offensive foul, Grieve hit two unanswered goals, the second a breakaway score on steal-assist from junior Marc Stauble, to pull the Gaels within one 10-9 with 2:36 on the clock. Twenty-four seconds later, Brown regained a two-goal edge 11-9 for the win.
Kelly praised his team’s effort against three-ranked opponents, and indicated the squad was moving “in the right direction,” despite one win and three losses for the weekend.
“Overall, it was a very good weekend for us,” Kelly said. “Anytime you can stand toe-to-toe with Princeton, Harvard and Brown, three of the elite teams in the country, it shows that you are heading in the right direction.
“It would have been nice to pull off at least one more win, in addition to beating an always tough MIT team. We have work to do.”
The Gaels travel to Claremont, CA, later this week for matches against Chapman College and Redlands University on Friday, followed by Fresno Pacific University and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College on Saturday.