COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - The Iona men's water polo program put in their best weekend of the season going 3-1 over four games at the 2024 Air Force Rare Air Challenge, the Maroon & Gold took down La Verne and Cal Lutheran in two close games on Saturday, and then went 1-1 against Concordia and the host school Air Force.
In the 21-18 win to start the weekend over La Verne,
Luksa Vlasic led the team with seven goals on eight shots, rookie
Pavle Musikic and junior Rastko Jevjovic each scored a hat trick combining for seven goals. Mo Refaat added two goals of his own while
Trippe Bauman,
Matthew Mischlich,
Coby Scanlon,
James DiSalle, and
Daniel Raz added one each. In net Aleksander Slakovic picked up the win playing all 32 minutes allowing 18 goals, making five saves. Gaels drew a game high 18 exclusions, while being kicked out 15 times.
In a very close game over Cal Lutheran, the rookie led the team to a victory once again scoring five goals on seven shots, senior Vlasic notched his second hat trick in a row, the rest of the team's goals came off the hands of Jevdjovic, DiSalle, Scanlon, Coyle, Mischlich, and Refaat. Orlando Hernandez got his first start of the year making 10 saves and allowing 14 goals, he added one steal as the Gaels took the close match 15-14.
In the third game and high scoring 22-19 win over Concordia, the Rookie shined again scoring eight goals, Rastko and Matthew netted a hat trick each, Refaat and Bauman found the back of the net twice with one goal apiece coming from Vlasic, Grady, Harrington, and DiSalle. Freshman Eric Caplener earned his first victory of his collegiate career, making 10 saves and noticing two steals.
In the final game of the weekend the Gaels fell to the host team 16-11, the offense was led by Vlasic and Musikic as they combined for six of the 11 goals. They were the only ones to score multiple goals. Hernandez got his second start of the weekend, playing all 32 minutes making ten saves on 32 shots faced.
Gaels are back in action this weekend in their first home game and first conference game of the season. Saturday will be against Princeton starting at 11 am and can be streamed on IonaInsider.
