Brown University Handles Iona University, 20-7, in 2022 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship Opening Game

Brown University-vs.-Iona University Scoresheet (2022 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship – Game #1)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ilias Stothart (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard Westlake) scored six times to claim Player of the Game accolades as host Brown University dominated Iona University, 20-7, at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in the opening game of the 2022 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship.

Courtesy the win, Brown (16-15, 4-6 NWPC) punches the program’s ticket to a semifinal showdown versus No. 8-ranked/regular season champion Princeton University at Noon on Saturday, November 19.  Brown lost both meetings versus the Tigers this year as the team fell 14-8 and 9-8 during the regular season.

In the history of the NWPC Championship, Brown has previously finished Second (2016), Third (2017, 2019, 2021) and Fourth (2018) as the victory over Iona guarantees the Bears will place no lower than Fourth at the 2022 event.

Iona (10-18, 4-8 NWPC) will return to the water at 10:00 a.m. on November 19 against the loser of a first round game pitting No. 15 Harvard University-vs.-Connecticut College and again at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 20, versus the fallen from an opening round clash matching No. 18 St. Francis College Brooklyn-vs.-Division III No. 10 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Brown never trailed in the game as the Bears opened up a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, held 5-1 and 9-2 margins at the conclusion of the first and second quarters prior to pulling out to a 16-3 scoreboard advantage heading into the final eight minutes of the fourth quarter.

The teams traded scoring blows over the final frame as the Bears and Gaels both netted four markers.

For Brown, Sothart led the way with six strikes.  Matt Simko (Sr., Coral Gables, Fla./Ransom Everglades School) deposited a trio of tallies, while Filip Aleksic (Jr., Belgrade, Serbia/MICDS (Mo.)), Ben Kirshon (So., Ladera Ranch, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) and Cole Atwell (Sr., San Diego, Calif./La Jolla) pumped in pairs to help power the Bears’ beserker attack.  Connor Enright (Jr., Atherton, Calif./Menlo School), Daniel Hadar (Fr., San Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake), Thomas Hoffmeister (Jr., Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich), Nick Berry (Jr., San Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake) and Daniel Khristich (Fr., San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic) each stuffed in solo markers.

In cage, Kole Newman (Fr., Santa Monica, Calif./Brentwood School) earned the start and the win for stopping 10 shots and permitted three scores over the span of 24 minutes.  Simeon Dong (So., Solana Beach, Calif./Canyon Crest Academy) added two saves with four goals allowed in the fourth quarter.

Across tank, Mohamed Refaat (Sr., Maitland, Fla./Winter Park) and Luksa Vlasic (So., Fort Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) accounted for pairs of Iona’s goals.  Andrew Miller (Jr., Richmond, Texas/Foster), Justin Ginsberg (Gr., Buffalo Grove, Ill./Adlai E. Stevenson) and Trippe Bauman (Jr., Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) combined to account for the remainder of the Gaels’ offense in support of a six-save effort by netminder Kyle Laufenberg (Sr., Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich).

In the history of the NWPC Championship, Iona has finished Fifth (2016, 2017, 2021) and Sixth (2018, 2019) as the team will compete against the losers of the Harvard-Connecticut and St. Francis Brooklyn-MIT games in a round-robin to determine places Fifth-to-Seventh.