PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Miller Geschke (Sr., Los Altos, Calif./Menlo School) scored five times as Division III No. 10-ranked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology topped Connecticut College, 19-7, in the team’s second consolation game at the 2022 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship at Brown University’s Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
MIT (6-19, 1-10 NWPC) is guaranteed to place no lower than Sixth Place in the final seven-team standings as Connecticut (3-16, 0-4 NWPC) takes Seventh Place with its loss to MIT and an earlier 21-9 setback against Iona University. The Engineers will face Iona at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 20, in a game to decide which program places Fifth in the championship standings.
MIT – which improves to 2-0 during the year versus Connecticut College following an earlier 12-4 win – pulled out to a 3-0 lead with approximately five minutes gone in the first quarter as Luke Apostolides (Fr., Greenwich, Conn./Brunswick School), Geschke and Alex Freedline (Jr., Miami, Flai./Ransom Everglades) stuffed in shots at 6:16, 4:33 (man-up) and 2:51, respectively.
Carson Neidert (Fr., West Palm Beach, Fla./Saint Andrew’s School) put the Camels on the board at 2:38, but Evan Kowal (Jr., South Pasadena, Calif./South Pasadena) (1:33) and Jack King (So., Los Altos, Calif./Menlo School) (58 seconds) answered to inflate the difference to 5-1. The teams exchanged strikes over the remaining time with Christian Jacobsen (Sr., North Palm Beach, Fla./Suncoast) and Adam Ivatorov (Fr., Rockaway, N.Y./Staten Island Technical) denting the twine with 45 and 21 seconds left, respectively, for a 6-2 game after eight minutes.
Apostolides (5:14), Jacobsen (4:55), Kush Khamesra (Fr., Portland, Ore./Westview) (4:03) and Grant Archer (Jr., Miami, Fla./Columbus) (1:13, man-up) continued the back-and-forth scoring in the second quarter prior to Ivatorov capping off the first half with strike at the 44 seconds mark for a 9-4 Engineers’ lead heading into halftime.
MIT expanded upon its lead in the dawning moments of the third quarter as Apostolides (7:41, man-up), Geschke (5:43) and Vik Neni (Fr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach) (4:06) fired balls into the cage to make it a 12-4 contest.
Jack Haddad (Fr., Springfield, Mass./Williston Northampton) terminated the run for Connecticut by finishing a shot at 2:42 to move the Camels to within 12-5, but Neni (2:19) and Geschke (1:19) answered in the closing moments of the third quarter to widen the gap out to 14-5 with eight minutes left to play.
Following a successful five-meter penalty shot by David Keller (Fr., Long Beach, Calif./Robert A. Millikan) 33 seconds into the fourth quarter to inflate the lead to 15-5, Connecticut stopped the bleeding at 5:16 via a five-meter penalty shot by Sam Guy (Sr., Portland, Ore./Lincoln) to get the Engineers within nine at 15-6.
Neni (5:03), Richard Yun (So., Irvine, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman) (4:26), King (3:59) and Geschke (3:27) wrapped-up the Engineers’ offense prior to Siski Nelson (So., Montgomery, Texas/Montgomery) (2:57) accounting for the Camels’ final blow to establish the 19-7 final score.
For MIT, Geshke (four), Apostolides (three), Neni (three), King (two) and Ivatorov (two) posted multi-goal games. Freedline, Yun, Kowal, Keller and Khamesra chipped in solo markers to support a combined 10 save effort by winning goalie Colin Weaver (Jr., Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) and fellow netminder Conrad Oakes (Sr., Pasadena, Calif./Flintridge Preparatory School).
Connecticut – which finished Seventh at the 2021 NWPC Championship hosted by Princeton University after competing in the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)-West from 2016-to-2019 – received three goals from Neidert and single scores by Archer, Nelson, Haddad and Guy. Sebastian Parilov (Fr., Brooklyn, N.Y./Millennium Brooklyn) made 12 saves in taking the loss for the Camels who conclude their season.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Division III No. 10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | – | 19 |
| Connecticut College | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | – | 7 |
| Connecticut Goals: | Carson Neidert (3); Grant Archer; Siski Nelson; Jack Haddad; Sam Guy | |||||
| MIT Goals: | Miller Geschke (4); Luke Apostolides (3); Vik Neni (3); Jack King (2); Adam Ivatorov (2); Alex Freedline; Richard Yun; Evan Kowal; David Keller; Kush Khamesra | |||||
| Connecticut Assists: | Chase Fichtner (2) | |||||
| MIT Assists: | Richard Yun (3); Kush Khamesra; Miller Geschke | |||||
| Saves: | Connecticut – Sebastian Parilov (12) ; MIT – Colin Weaver (5, 16 minutes), Conrad Oakes (5, 16 minutes) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Connecticut – 4 ; MIT – 5 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Connecticut – 3-for-5 ; MIT – 2-for-4 | |||||
| Sprints: | Connecticut – 2-for-4 (1st, 3rd) ; MIT – 2-for-4 (2nd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Alex Stankevitch, Chad Packer | |||||
