The Iona College Women’s Water Polo team started their season 4-4. The Gaels are looking forward to stepping it up as their next stop is the crucial west coast trip.

At the St. Francis Invitational, the Gaels defeated home team St. Francis (23-12). Junior Amy Olsen led the Gaels with eight goals and three assists in the winning effort, as well as being named Offensive Player of the Week. Senior Alyssa Turza joined Olsen with six goals and two assists. Junior Sarah Hanly scored one goal. Sophomore Ashley DeMarzo had two assists.

With a large freshman class, Rebecca Mathews stepped up and tossed in three goals, while her fellow classmates Taylor Silva, Dana Andrea and Meghan Mahoney each scored a goal. Junior goalkeeper Marisa Gaynor had nine saves and four assists.

The Gaels also came out on top in a pair of exhibition games against Cornell and Boston University.

“I like our group. I like our condition. It is definitely one of our strengths,” said Coach Brian Kelly. “Playing three games in one day is fine by us. We are used to working and training hard.”

The Gaels dropped two of three games at the MAAC/CWPA Crossover. They were defeated by Princeton, as they allowed three goals and no response in the first period. The final outcome was 14-11. Afterwards, the Gaels took full advantage of their second opportunity against Harvard. Since losing to them on opening day, they returned the favor and defeated Harvard 17-14.

“I was very happy on how we played on Saturday,” said Kelly. “We played Princeton who is ranked twelfth in the country, they went to National Championships last year with us, and they played us to a very good game.”

“Although we lost [14-11] they are one of the best teams in the country. So I was very happy with our effort.” Kelly added, “Then we came back to beat Harvard who we lost to earlier in the season. It is always excellent to come back and get a win versus a team that beat you,” as he describes his thoughts on the bounce-back win against Harvard. “Also Harvard is a very good team with a lot of offensive weapons. So getting a win against them, after a tough game against Princeton was big.”

However, the Gaels “fell into George Washington’s trap,” according to Kelly, and lost 13-11.

“We played into GW’s game. They have a lot of talent and are strong and physical. We didn’t move enough. We didn’t swim enough. We didn’t drop back to defense fast enough. We kept trying to force things that weren’t there throughout the game,” said Kelly. “We have to do a better job of adjusting and being more vocal as a team, which we didn’t do. We didn’t communicate enough and swim enough during the game, and we ended up losing.”

In the mix of all things, Turza was named Offensive Player of the Week, as she scored 12 goals and averaged five points per game in three games.

The Gaels split their two games at the Marist Invitational. On March 2, they were defeated by Hartwick (16-8). This was the first game of the season in which they have not scored at least ten goals. On March 3, they bounced back and defeated Notre Dame College 17-4.

Iona will be back in action on March 13, when they take on Concordia and Cal Baptist on their trip in California.