PRINCETON, NJ - The Iona College women's water polo team dropped its final two games of four road matches Sunday at the 2015 Princeton Invitational.
After defeating Harvard a week ago for a season-opening win, the Gaels dropped a 12-8 decision to the Crimson in the first game of the day.
Against the Crimson, freshman Hannah Schultz led the Gaels with three goals, while fellow freshman Kayla Allen scored two. Juniors Dana Andrea and Taylor Silva, and sophomore Darby Nevins had one goal each. Freshman goalie Britten Vilander recorded four saves in the first half, and junior goalie Dana Delucchi had eight in the second half. On defense, Silva and Allen had two steals each, while freshman Brittany Toro drew two kickouts.
With two unanswered scores early in the first period, Harvard jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Allen put the Gaels on the board to trim the Crimson advantage to 2-1 with 1:14 left in the opening quarter.
Harvard went up 3-1 just 1:45 into the second, but Allen hit her second goal, assisted by Nevins, to pull Iona within one 3-2. Three unanswered Crimson scores gave Harvard 6-2 edge, until Andrea scored with 55 ticks left in the half. Harvard hit again 34 seconds later, then Schultz scored with seven ticks left as the Crimson led 7-4 at intermission.
Silva's goal with 1:32 gone in the third pulled Iona with two 7-5, then three straight Harvard scores resulted in a 10-5 deficit. Schultz's second score, assisted by junior Rebecca Matthews, with 1:10 left narrowed the Harvard advantage to 10-6 going into the final period. Iona head coach Brian Kelly received a yellow-card warning in the third period.
The Gael rally continued into the fourth period with two straight scores from Nevins and Schultz, until Harvard did the same to lead 12-8 with 4:46 left in regulation and seal the win.
Despite trailing by a single goal at the end of the opening period, the Gaels fell 18-6 to number-nine Princeton in the second game of the day.
Senior Jordan Carmody led Iona with two goals, while freshman Schultz, sophmore Rebecca Koshy, junior Rebecca Mathews and junior Andrea scored one goal each.
Delucci recorded three saves in the first half, and freshman goalie Britten Vilander had one save in the second half. Mathews and junior Silva were disqualified with three ejections each.
Princeton jumped out to a 2-0 lead until Schultz hit her first goal with 4:50 left in the first period. Koshy's goal 2:30 later tied the match at two, but Princeton answered at the 1:04 mark for a 3-2 lead at the end of the first period.
In the second period, Princeton hit seven straight goals, while the Gaels failed to score, as the Tigers led 10-2 at halftime.
Matthews ended the Gaels offensive drought with a goal at 6:15 left in the third period, followed by Carmody's two, but the Tigers answered with five goals to lead 15-5. Andrea scored for the Gaels in the final quarter, then Princeton hit three more goals to seal the 18-6 win.
Disappointed about not coming away with a win this weekend, Iona head coach Brian Kelly stressed the need for more teamwork and communication.
“We didn't play as a team all weekend and it showed,” Kelly said. “We're not an experience team yet. When you don't communicate in the water, you're not going to be successful on either side of the pool.”
After a weekend off, the Gaels will travel February 21-22 to the Villanova Invitational for four road matches.
