THE BASICS:
- Scores: MIT 16, Iona College 11
- Records: MIT (10-13); Iona College (6-27)
- Location: Providence, R.I. (Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center)
- The Lead: Fifth-seeded MIT earned its first-ever Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Tournament win and avenged two-straight losses to Iona College in the playoffs with a 16-11 victory over the sixth-seeded Gaels in the fifth-place match of the 2018 conference tournament this afternoon in Providence.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Two goals from junior Ward Weldon (Honolulu, Hawaii) as well as one from both Clyde Huibregtse (New York, N.Y.) and Kyle Sandell (Mountain View, Calif.) put MIT ahead 4-1 through eight minutes of action.
- Back to back goals from Christian Schillinger (Orinda, Calif.) and Huibregtse towards the end of the second quarter gave MIT its largest lead of the first half at 8-4. However, prior to the buzzer Iona score twice as the score stood at 9-7 in favor of the Engineers at the break.
- Three goals from freshman Miller Geschke (Los Altos, Calif.), including two which came 33-seconds apart, pushed the Engineers lead back to five with 2:48 left in the third. Weldon added one with four seconds to play in the stanza to make the score 14-9 through 24 minutes.
- Both teams scored twice in the fourth quarter as MIT held off Iona for the 16-11 win in the fifth-place match of the 2018 NWPC Tournament.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- The Engineers were paced offensively by Huibregtse and Geschke, who both posted four goals this afternoon. Huibregtse also added three assists to his effort in the fifth-place match.
- Today marked the program's first-ever NWPC postseason tournament win. The NWPC, which was established in 2016 saw MIT finish sixth in each of its first two seasons of play.
- In total, MIT defeated Iona three times this season to up its advantage in the all-time series which dates back to 1983 to 28-26.
- In net, MIT's Miguel Lamar (Miami, Fla.) made seven saves over 24 minutes, while Hayden Niederreiter (Visalia, Calif.) added five saves over eight minutes for the Engineers.
- Shots were even at 29-29 for both teams and both teams had three goals on the man advantage.
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