NEW ROCHELLE, NY– With two Northeast Water Polo Conference wins today at Hynes Pool, the Iona men's water polo continued its three-game conference win streak.

Iona 18 LIU 14

After building a ten-goal third-quarter lead, the Gaels allowed seven straight Sharks scores for just a two-goal edge with 2:18 left in the match, but held on for a 18-14 win with two last-minute tallies. Graduate student Luka Nastic led the Maroon and Gold (6-10 overall, 3-2 NEWPC) with five goals, including two win-sealing scores in the final minute, on eight shots, while sophomore Pavel Musikic scored four goals on six shots. Senior Coby Scanlon and junior Jayden Arana added three goals each, senior co-captain Matthew Mischlich had two and junior Hugh Coyle scored one goal.The Gaels scored 18 goals on 36 shots on 12 assists with four from senior Rastko Jevdjovic and two each from Nastic, Scanlon and junior Zachary McAllister-Sim.

In goal, senior Alexsandar Slavkovic had seven saves on 30 Sharks shots, including a five-meter penalty block, four steals and had 14 goals against. On defense, Iona blocked three shots. The Gaels made 13 steals with three each by Mischlich and graduate student Edward Imm. Iona drew 21 LIU kickouts with eight by Musikic and four by Jevdjovic, and drew two five-meter penalty shots, while being ejected 12 times with two five-meter penalties. Scanlon and Musikic were disqualified with three ejections each. The Gaels turned the ball over 14 times. Scanlon won all four swim offs. Iona scored four goals on 18 man-up chances, while LIU had two man-up goal on six chances.

Scanlon needed only 29 seconds into the match to put the Gaels up one 1-0. Mischlich followed to give Iona a 2-0 edge, but LIU answered with 5:04 to go. On Iona's next trip down the pool, Musikic restored the home two-goal advantage 3-1. With 50 ticks left in the first quarter, the Sharks answered to cut the Gaels edge back to two 4-2. In the second period, Iona outscored LIU 7-2. After Musikic took advantage of a man-up chance, LIU scored a five-meter penalty goal to slice the Gaels lead to two 5-3 with 4:50 remaining in the second period. After Slavkovic blocked a LIU five-meter penalty try, two straight scores from Scanlon built a four-goal home margin 7-3 at the 3:32 mark. Continuing a five-goal run, Arana found the back of the net twice as Iona lead by five 8-3 with 1:55 left. 

After LIU responded, the Gaels ended the first half with two more scores for a seven-goal 11-4 lead at intermission. Neither squad scored in the third period until Nastic gave Iona eight-goal 12-4 cushion with 5:01 remaining. On a 4-0 run from the second period, Arana's third score created a nine-goal 13-4 home margin with 2:22 on the clock. Just 17 ticks later, Nastic's second goal on a five-meter penalty shot put Iona up ten 14-4. In the closing 1:44, two unanswered LIU goals chopped the Iona lead back to eight 14-6 going into the final period.

LIU opened the final period with three more unanswered goals on a 5-0 run to get back within five 14-9 with 6:16 left. Continuing a 7-0 rally, the Sharks tacked on three more consecutive scores to pull within three 14-11 until Jevdjovic and Mischlich ended the Gaels offensive drought to restore a five-goal edge 16-11 with 3:54 to go. LIU tallied three straight scores to get within two 16-14 with 1:47 left. In the final 1:01, Nastic's two goals sealed the Iona 18-14 win.

Iona 21 Connecticut 9

After two first quarter ties, Iona led by six at halftime, then outscored Connecticut 13-4 in the second half for its third straight conference win. Mischlich led the Maroon and Gold with four goals on five shots, while Musikic had three goals on seven shots. Sophomores Jayden Arana, Brett Grady and Daniel Raz scored two goals each. Nastic, Imm, freshmen Colin Minehan, Jakob Villasenor and Toni Vlasic scored one goal apiece. The Gaels scored 21 goals on 39 shots on seven assists.

In goal, sophomore P.J. Bartzen had 16 saves on 39 Camels shots and had nine goals against, along with three steals, one assist and scored one goal. On defense, Iona blocked one shot. The Gaels made 23 steals with five by Grady. Iona drew eight Connecticut kickouts with two each by Mischlich and Musikic and drew three five-meter penalty shots, while being ejected 7 times with no five-meter penalties. The Gaels turned the ball over 13 times. The Gaels won three of four swim offs. Iona scored five goals on six man-up chances, while Connecticut had two man-up goal on six chances.

With 57 seconds gone in the match, Arana got Iona on the board first, but Connecticut tied the score at one each just 16 seconds later. Three straight Gaels goals from Mischlich, Musikic (five-meter penalty) and Nastic resulted in a three-score 4-1 edge with 4:52 left. But the Camels went on a 3-0 run of their own to tie the match at four all with 3:38 on the clock. Three straight goals from Musikic gave Iona a 7-4 edge going into the second period.

Continuing a 4-0 Gaels run, Imm increased the home lead to four 8-4 with 26 seconds gone. The Camels answered, but Coyle restored the four-goal edge 9-5 with 5:48 to go. After Jevdjovic scored, Coyle added his second goal, then Villasenor tallied his first Iona score to put the home squad up seven 12-5 with 2:52 on the clock. A Camels goal with 1:13 gave the Gaels a 12-6 halftime advantage.

After a Connecticut goal opened the second half, four straight Iona scores from Grady, Raz and two from Mischlich upped the home lead to nine 16-7 with 4:09 on the clock. Raz's second score with 44 ticks left gave Iona a ten-goal 17-7 lead, but a Connecticut goal with eight seconds left trimmed the home lead back to nine 17-8 going into the final period. 

Connecticut scored with 57 gone in the final period to cut the home lead to eight 17-9 until Minehan's first Iona goal restored a nine-score advantage 18-9 with 2:08 left. Iona sealed the match with three more goals as Barzten, on a full-tank shot, Gardner and Vlasic, all scored their first Gaels goals to seal the 21-9 win.

COACH THOUGHTS

Despite the second-half "disappointing" letdown against LIU, Iona head coach Brian Kelly was pleased with today's two conference wins. "Two good wins today," Kelly said. "It's always good to keep the momentum going and extend your winning streak in conference play. Winning at this level is not easy. It was disappointing losing a big lead to LIU and letting them back in the game, however, it allowed players to step up and seize the moment. Rastko and Luka scored when we needed them."
 

UP NEXT

On Friday, October 24, the Gaels travel to Mount Saint Mary's for a 4 p.m. NEWPC match, then head over to Annapolis, MD, for a non-conference game against the United States Naval Academy on Saturday, October 25, at 9 a.m.