Cambridge, MA - The Iona College men's water polo team finished the 2007 season ranked eighth in the final CWPA Top 10 Poll. The Gaels (11-17) made it to the Eastern Championships for the fourth time in 14 years as they placed in the top four at the Northern Division Championships. Iona drew a tough opponent in the opening round as it faced No. 1 Navy. The road didn't get easier as the Gaels faced No. 4 Brown and No. 3 Johns Hopkins.

The Gaels lost three games to nationally ranked teams. "We played tough versus Navy and had chances to win versus Brown (L 10-12) and Hopkins (L 6-9)," said head coach Brian Kelly. Junior Patrick St. Cin was named All-Northern Division. Classmate Nick Velasquez was voted by the coaches as Iona's MVP of the tournament.

In the Maroon & Gold's first game against No. 1 Navy, the defending Eastern champion, the Gaels kept it close as after the first quarter it was 1-0 Navy. Iona picked up a goal in the second quarter, but the Midshipmen added five more and took a commanding 6-1 lead into the half. The game was firmly in the hands of Navy after it won the third quarter 4-1 and led the match 10-2. The Gaels notched one more goal but couldn't make their way back as Navy took the game 12-3. Sophomore Joe Przekota led the Gaels with two goals and Velasquez added the other goal. Freshman GK Eric Konzem had stellar game with 12 saves and four steals.

Iona drew No. 4 Brown in the second round.  Brown, who came off a loss to George Washington, played a very close game with Iona. The Gaels were down 7-3 at halftime and brought the score to 9-7 after three quarters of play. Though the Maroon & Gold outscored the Bears 4-3 in the fourth quarter, they were just edged 12-10 in the final score. St. Cin led the team with four goals. Junior Ed Gronkowski had three goals and three steals before fouling out. Przekota had a goal, a steal, and two ejections drawn before fouling out. Senior captain Brendan Barrow had a goal, a steal, and an ejection drawn while sophomore Andrew Velasquez added a goal and an ejection drawn. His brother Nick had two steals and an ejection drawn and Konzem had seven saves and two steals.

In the final game of the weekend, the Gaels faced Johns Hopkins for seventh place. Another close game throughout that saw Iona down 5-3 with one quarter to play. Three scores in the final quarter weren't enough to propel the Maroon & Gold to victory as they were edged again, this time by the score of 9-6. Konzem continued his great weekend with eight saves and five steals. Gronkowski added two goals, a steal, an ejection drawn and a field block. St. Cin, junior John Krzyminski, Nick and Andrew Velasquez each had a goal a piece.