GROVE CITY, Pa. — Brooke Le (Sr., Flower Mound, Texas/Flower Mound) scored five times to earn Player of the Game recognition and lead the Division III No. 5-ranked/defending Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Champion Kangaroos of Austin College to a 13-4 victory over Macalester College in the semifinals of the 2022 CWPA Division III Championship hosted by Grove City College at the James E. Longnecker Competition Pool.
The ‘Roos (12-7, 8-0 CWPA Division III-West) advance to their third consecutive CWPA Division III Championship title game in as many years following an 8-5 loss to Macalester in 2019 at Connecticut College in New London, Conn., prior to a 20-6 defeat of Wittenberg University at the 2021 event hosted by Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The 2020 championship was not contested due to the COVID-19 pandemic terminating the season.
Austin will have a chance to join Grove City College (2010, 2011, 2012), Connecticut College (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and Macalester (2017, 2018, 2019) with multiple CWPA Division III Championship crowns as the Kangaroos will return to the water at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, versus the victor of a semifinal pitting Wittenberg and Division III No. 9 Augustana College.
Both Wittenberg and Augustana are fellow members of the CWPA Division III-West Region with Austin as the ‘Roos downed the Tigers 19-6 and 22-6 during the regular season to go along with 12-7 and 18-7 defeats of the Vikings.
Facing another member of the CWPA Division III-West in Macalester (6-12, 4-4 CWPA Division III-West) with a title game berth on the line, Austin claimed its third victory of the season against the Scots after dispatching their foe 17-5 (March 27 at Wittenberg) and 16-4 (April 9 at Carthage College) earlier in the year.
The game – which pitted the 2017, 2018 and 2019 CWPA Division III Champion Scots who did not compete at the 2021 championship versus the 2021 CWPA Division III Champion Kangaroos – was put out of reach early by cashing in on Macalester errors as Le lined in a penalty shot (7:09) and a man-up opportunity (5:00) to give Austin a 2-0 margin. Sammi Thiele (So., Keller, Texas/Keller) (4:09, man-up; 14 seconds, man-up), Alyssa Ross (So., San Jose, Calif./Leland) (1:48, man-up) and Lexi Wong (Sr., Lantana, Texas/Guyer) (1:13, man-up) inflicted the rest of the damage as Austin combined for a penalty goal and five six-on-five conversions in the first eight minutes to acquire a 6-1 margin. The Scots broke up Austin’s scoring run with 56 seconds left in the opening frame as Brooke Lane (Fr., Meriden, Conn./Hopkins School) put away an even-strength tally.
The ‘Roos continued to exploit and convert on Macalester exclusions as Le buried her teams’ seventh of the contest with 4:30 remaining in the second quarter to build the lead to 7-1. The Scots answered at 1:17 as Sydney Hollingsworth (Jr., Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) broke free to beat Austin netminder Valery Piachonkina (Sr., Castro Valley, Calif./Mission San Jose) and move Macalester to within 7-2 entering halftime.
The Kangaroos came out swinging in the third quarter as Le (6:46) and Wong (6:12) slipped in natural markers before Le deposited her team’s eighth man-up tally at 5:21 to make it 10-2. Sophie Oliver (Sr., Houston, Texas/Langham Creek) got on the scoresheet at 3:22 as the ‘Roos carried an insurmountable 11-2 lead into the final eight minutes of regulation.
Kalissa Niles (Fr., Richmond, Texas/Foster) padded the difference further by denting the twine at 7:45 of the fourth quarter to place Austin ahead by 10 at 12-2.
Following a successful six-on-five conversion by Annika Krueger (Sr., Emerald Hills, Calif./Sequoia) at 4:54 and natural strike by Hollingsworth at 4:12 to close the gap to 12-4, Le capped off the contest by racking up another man-up score with 1:41 to go in the contest.
Le (five), Thiele (two) and Wong (two) each notched multi-goal games for Austin. Taylor, Niles, Oliver and Ross each found the back twine once.
In cage, Piachonkina stopped seven shots and Erin McCormack (So., Orlando, Fla./Winter Park) swatted away one scoring try in the fourth quarter.
Courtesy the win, Austin earns a spot in the inaugural/2022 USA Water Polo Division III Women’s Collegiate Club Championship as the top two teams from the CWPA Division III ranks will take on the top two teams from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) on the weekend of Friday-Sunday, May 6-8, at a site to be determined in California.
For Macalester, Hollingsworth led the way with a pair. Lane and Krueger both contributed single goals to support a nine save effort by goalie Laurel O’Hare (So., Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township).
The Scots – who previously finished first (2017, 2018, 2019), fourth (2011, 2013, 2014), fifth (2012, 2015), sixth (2010) and seventh (2016) – will seek to gain the program’s inaugural Third Place finish at Noon on Saturday, April 23, against the loser of the WIttenberg-Augustana semifinal.
Macalester went 0-2 against Augustana during the regular season with 17-5 (March 26 at Wittenberg) and 13-8 (April 9 at Carthage) losses, but posted a 2-0 mark against Wittenberg with 10-7 (March 26 at Wittenberg) and 10-9 (April 10 at Carthage) victories.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Macalester College (6-12, 4-4 CWPA Division III-West) |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | – | 4 |
| Division III No. 5 Austin College (12-7, 8-0 CWPA Division III-West) | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2 | – | 13 |
| Austin Goals: | Brooke Le (5); Sammi Thiele (2); Lexi Wong (2); Madison Taylor; Kalissa Niles; Sophie Oliver; Alyssa Ross | |||||
| Macalester Goals: | Sydney Hollingsworth (2); Brooke Lane; Annika Krueger | |||||
| Saves: | Austin – Valery Piachonkina (7, 24 minutes), Erin McCormack (1, 8 minutes) ; Macalester – Laurel O’Hare (9) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Austin – 7 ; Macalester – 15 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Austin – 9-for-15 ; Macalester – 1-for-7 | |||||
| Sprints: | Austin – 4-for-4 ; Macalester – 0-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Greg Sanchez; Martin Murray | |||||
Macalester College’s Brooke Lane (#15) lofts a shot over Austin College’s Kyle Noble (#22)
Austin College’s Aubrey Pasky (#13) tries for a field block of Macalester College’s Eleanor Michaud (#3)
Macalester College’s Laurel O’Hare (#1B)
