The Iona College women's water polo team competed Saturday on the west coast with a pair of contests at the Lancer Invite. Against Redlands, the Gaels were able to prevail 14-8 before doubling La Verne 18-9 in their second contest of the day.  On Sunday, the Gaels wrapped up the break, falling to 14th ranked UC Santa Barbara 11-9.

Against Redlands, junior Cecilia Leonard had four goals, one assist and drew two ejections, including a penalty shot.  Senior Maggie Wood also had five points on four goals and an assist. Defensively, she had two steals.  Freshman Amy Olsen had two goals and an assist along with three steals.  Junior Mackenzie Mone had three goals and an assist.  Sophomore Alyssa Turza had one goal and sophomore Lauren Scheetz and Erika Lauraitis each had one assist.  In net, senior Kathleen Link had nine saves, a steal and two assists.

“We played a very solid defensive first half, limiting Redlands to two goals," said head coach Brian Kelly.  "Link was outstanding and put a solid Redlands team in a big hole.”

 

Against La Verne, Wood had seven goals and drew three ejections.  Olsen had six points on four goals and two assists.  She also drew an ejection and had three steals.  Sophomore Terra Shelton had a goal and a steal.  Leonard had three points on a goal and two assists, as well as three steals and two ejections drawn.  Freshman Sarah Hanly had a goal and two steals.  Mone had a goal and an assist.  Lauraitis had a goal and two steals while Scheetz had a goal and three assists.

In the first half, freshman Marisa Gaynor had six saves in goal.  Sophomore Juliana Kiesselbach took over in the second half and had two saves.  

“Our counter was consistent," commented Kelly. "Wood made things very difficult on Laverne's transition defense.  We received excellent goaltending from Gaynor and Kiesselbach.  It was a solid team effort.”

Against Santa Barbara, Wood had four goals and drew two ejections.  Leonard had four points on two goals and two assists to go along with a steal and two ejections drawn.  Turza had two goals and a steal, with Olsen picking up a tally and an ejection drawn.  Mone had an assist and two steals.  Senior Sam Cody and junior Caitlin McGregor each had a steal and drew an ejection.  Link had nine saves and two steals.

“Another big test for us on our trip where we played our fourth game of the weekend at a solid team's home pool," said Kelly.  "It was a back and forth game where we were tied at half and up in the middle of the third period.  Santa Barbara had a big three goal run on us to go back up by two and we struggled to find consistent offense after that.”  

The Gaels take on Wagner this Friday at 7:00 pm in Staten Island.