The women's water polo team went 3-1 this weekend at the Marist Invitational. The Bears beat St. Francis, 14-4, Marist, 9-8 and Iona, 13-7, but lost to Wagner 8-6 in a close game. Lauren Presant '10 had an exceptional weekend, tallying 17 goals and 11 steals over the four games.
"Our success this weekend was possible because of our great defensive play," Presant wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "Additionally the low number of ejections against us revealed how we trusted our teammates to pick up the drives when we were behind. Trust, a motion offense and our conversion on power plays were the keys to our success."
The Bears (8-4) began the weekend strong with the 14-4 drubbing of St. Francis College. Presant was the leading scorer with seven goals, followed by Sarah Glick '10 with four. Rita Bullwinkel '11, Katherine Stanton '11 and Samantha Ryu '12 each scored one goal.
The team was able to generate great momentum against Saint Francis, according to Presant.
"It was exhilarating," Presant wrote. "Our teamwork really showed through as we played solid defense and managed counter-attacking in such a small pool. A great surprise during the game came from a counterattack goal from freshman Sam Ryu. Additionally it was great seeing (Bullwinkel) become a real offensive threat on 6-5 during the Iona game."
On Saturday night, the Bears faced Marist, the team they beat last weekend for the ECAC Championship title. Brown was able to shut down Marist again in the final minutes and capture the win, 9-8. Presant and Glick led the offense with five and three goals, respectively. Stanton and goalie Stephanie Laing '10 made strong contributions on defense.
Presant and Glick "are so creative and have a knack for finding each other," wrote Head Coach Felix Mercado in an e-mail to The Herald. "There is no question they are a powerful 1-2 punch. No matter what the other teams would try to do, they were able to find the back of the net. But I think it is important to say that they are as good as they are because of each other."
Brown defeated Iona on Sunday morning, 13-7. Glick had four goals and five assists, while Bullwinkel had three goals.
Later that night, Brown played Wagner but was unable to clinch the win. The Bears came out strong, scoring two goals within eight minutes of the game. They registered one more goal to hold a 3-2 advantage over Wagner at halftime.
But Wagner didn't give up and came out strong in the third quarter, putting the ball in the back of the net four times to gain a 6-3 lead. Presant answered back with two goals to end the third quarter, 6-5. In the fourth quarter, Brown tied it early with a goal by Glick, but Wagner responded by netting two unanswered goals for the 8-6 win.
"Obviously we wanted to win all the games, but considering we were missing Rory Stanton ('09) the entire weekend, I will not complain too much," wrote Mercado. "Wagner came into the game with a game plan for us, while we came into the weekend just to play well. ... They did a good job of shutting our offense down, but I feel that (with) a couple of breaks going our way we would have pulled out a win. But no doubt I was very happy with our play. I'm excited for the rest of the season."
The Bears will play again this weekend against Colorado College, the New York Athletic Club and Harwick.
