Bucknell University-vs.-George Washington University Scoresheet
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Player of the Game Ally Furano (So., Stamford, Conn./The Ursuline School) scored six times and sister Paige Furano (Fr., Stamford, Conn./The Ursuline School) added a single tally as the sisters combined for seven goals in powering No. 21-ranked Bucknell University to a 12-7 defeat of George Washington University on the first day of the 2019 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship hosted by Brown University at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
Courtesy the win, Bucknell (24-11) advances to a 1:00 p.m. showdown with No. 15 Princeton University – which downed Saint Francis University by a 12-3 score in the opening game of the weekend – in the tournament semifinals on Saturday, April 27. It will mark the second meeting of the year between the two programs as Princeton picked up a 10-5 win on April 14 to clinch the No. 2 seed for the tournament and drop Bucknell back to the No. 3 seed.
The Bison never trailed in the game, but faced a resurgent Colonials (6-13) squad that menaced Bucknell throughout the first half of play.
Kali Hyham (So., Garden Grove, Calif./Huntington Beach) and Ally Furano staked Bucknell to an early 2-0 lead as the duo deposited even-strength (7:32) and five-meter penalty shot (5:46) scores, respectively, to open the game. Jaleh Moaddeli (So., Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar) responded for GW by pulling the trigger on a pair of natural markers at 4:53 and 3:56 to deadlock the squads at two-all, but Paige Furano exploited a seam in the Colonials’ defense to return the lead to the Bison at 3-2 courtesy a man-up goal with 1:44 on the clock.
George Washington delivered an answer 22 seconds later as Alana Ponce (So., Gig Harbor, Wash./Gig Harbor) pounded in an equalizer, but Ally Furano put the Bison in front to stay prior to the concluding horn of the frame by slicing in a shot with exactly one minute to go for a 4-3 lead.
She struck three more times in the second quarter by torching the twine for even-strength (7:39, 20 seconds) and man-up (4:37) goals to surround a score by GW’s Juliette Belanger (Fr., Ottawa, Canada/Ecole Secondaire Catholique Franco-Cite) at 4:18 to make it 7-4 after 16 minutes of action.
The Colonials closed to within a pair to begin the third quarter as Belanger scored with six minutes to go to move George Washington within 7-5.
However, Larissa Hodzic (Fr., New Rochelle, N.Y./Rye Neck) (even-strength, 5:46), Nina Benson (Jr., Henderson, Nev./Green Valley) (man-up, 1:40) and Emily Konishi (Sr., Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill) (even-strength, 1:10) put the game away for the Bison as the trio ticked off a trio of tallies to build Bucknell’s lead to 10-5.
The teams traded scoring blows over the duration of the fourth quarter as Benson (7:29) and Ally Furano (2:55) sandwiched markers by Ponce (7:13) and Allison DeCicco (Jr., Windermere, Fla./Olympia) (5:53) to establish the 12-7 final score.
For Bucknell, Ally Furano (six) and Benson (two) both posted multi-goal games, while Hyham, Paige Furano, Konishi and Hodzic contributed solo markers. In cage, Georgia Lewis (Fr., Redwood, Calif./The Castilleja School) stopped six shots to earn the victory.
George Washington received pairs of goals from Ponce, Belanger and Moaddeli to go along with a single score by DeCicco. Samantha Runyon (Jr., San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch) suffered the loss with six saves.
The loss drops GW into the consolation side of the seven-team championship field as the Colonials will face Saint Francis at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 27. George Washington will then wrap-up its championship weekend at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 28, against the fallen from a first-round game between host Brown and No. 16 Harvard University as GW, Saint Francis and either Brown or Harvard will play a round-robin determine Fifth-through-Seventh in the final tournament standings.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| George Washington University | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – | 7 |
| No. 21 Bucknell University | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | – | 12 |
| Bucknell Goals: | Ally Furano (6); Nina Benson (2); Kali Hyham; Paige Furano; Emily Konishi; Larissa Hodzic | |||||
| George Washington Goals: | Alana Ponce (2); Juliette Belanger (2); Jaleh Moaddeli (2); Allison DeCicco | |||||
| Saves: | Bucknell – Georgia Lewis (6) ; George Washington – Samantha Runyon (6) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Bucknell – 2 ; George Washington – 7 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Bucknell – 4-for-7 ; George Washington – 0-for-2 | |||||
| Sprints: | Bucknell – 4-fo-4 ; George Washington – 0-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Val Vasilchikov; JR Perez | |||||
George Washington University’s Alana Ponce (#2)
George Washington University’s Allison DeCicco (#13) looks for an opening as Bucknell University’s Marcela Herrera (#2) defends
Bucknell University’s Nina Benson (#16)
Bucknell University’s Paige Furano (#4)
