ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Players of the Game/goalies Vaois Vlahotasios (Fr., Athens, Greece/Genadios School) and Austin Pyrch (Jr., Denton, Texas/Billy Ryan) combined for 20 saves to allow George Washington University to open a 5-0 lead in the first quarter and roll over Wagner College, 8-5, to capture the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship at the United States Naval Academy’s Lejeune Hall.
The title marks the inaugural league championship in the history of water polo at George Washington (men’s and/or women’s competition) and advances the Colonials to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship for the first-time.
GW (17-11, 7-3 MAWPC-East Region), which fell to Bucknell University in the 2016 MAWPC Championship game in Lewisburg, Pa. by an 11-5 final score in the program’s first league title game berth, avenged its earlier setback by building a lead which the Seahawks were unable to overcome in a defensive battle of wills.
Following two minutes and nine seconds of scoreless water polo to start off the title tilt, GW broke the ice and opened the floodgates as Atakan Destici (So., Istanbul, Turkey/Istek Acibadem Anatolian) sniped in a shot at 5:51. Pierce Deamer (Sr., South Pasadena, Calif./South Pasadena) followed with a man-up goal (3:43) prior to Destici and Kerim Sismanoglu (Fr., Istanbul, Turkey/Koc School) delivering penalty shot (2:14) and even-strength (21 seconds) markers, respectively, to build a 4-0 lead and put Wagner (14-17, 5-5 MAWPC-East Region) on its heels.
The Seahawks awoke from their offensive slumber with one second left in the opening quarter as Jasmin Kolasinac (Fr., Belgrade, Serbia/King’s College) lined in a long-distance shot to convert on a six-on-five bid and move Wagner within 5-1 after eight minutes of play.
Kolasinac followed with a natural goal at the 5:34 mark of the second quarter to inch Wagner within 5-2, but Andrew Mavis (So., Princeton, N.J./The Pennington School) delivered a retort at 4:30 to push the lead back to four at 6-2.
Down by four goals, the Seahawks used back-to-back even-strength strikes by Kolasinac (35 seconds) and Jordi Alonso (Fr., Barcelona, Spain/Jesuites Sarria-Sant Ignasi) (five seconds) to close within two at 6-4 going into halftime.
Unlike the first half in which the teams combined for 10 goals, the second half was a defensive struggle as the Colonials and Seahawks mustered only three tallies over the span of the final 16 minutes.
Brett Else (Jr., Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) broke Wagner’s momentum by hitting the back of the cage with 7:14 remaining in the third quarter prior to Alonso racking up his second goal at 5:04 to keep the teams two scores apart at 7-5 going into the fourth quarter.
The play of Pyrch, who replaced Vlahotasios at halftime, would be the deciding factor in the second half as the sophomore equaled his freshman teammate with 10 saves to keep Wagner from rallying back and allow GW’s offensive struggles against Wagner goalie Cameron Woldt (Jr., San Diego, Calif./Serra) to be a moot point.
Needing some insurance to punch the program’s ticket to the NCAA Championship and secure the second-ever MAWPC Championship, Levai delivered the back-breaking blast with 33 seconds left on the clock to establish the 8-5 final score.
For George Washington under first-year head coach Barry King, Destici scored three times to lead the Colonials’ attack with Mavis, Else, Levai, Sismanoglu and Deamer each chipping in solo scores.
Kolasinac (three) and Alonso (two) exclusively mustered Wagner’s offense as the duo combined for five goals, while Woldt notched nine saves in suffering the loss.
The win likely earns GW a trip to Cambridge, Mass., next weekend as the Colonials will probably be involved in a NCAA Championship play-in game against two-time Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion Harvard University. The No. 15 Crimson earned their league title in dramatic fashion as Harvard overcame an early deficit against No. 13 Princeton to collect a 12-11 win in sudden death overtime at home in Blodgett Pool.
A Harvard-GW showdown will be the third meeting of the year between the two champions as George Washington fell to Harvard by a 14-8 final score on September 9 at the Princeton Invitational in Princeton, N.J. prior to swallowing a 13-9 defeat on October 15 in Cambridge during the Harvard Invitational.
NOTE – Following the conclusion of the MAWPC Championship title game, the 2017 All-Tournament Team was announced:
| 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference All-Tournament Team | |
| Most Valuable Player: | Andrew Mavis (George Washington University) |
| Rookie of the Tournament: | Andras Levai (George Washington University) |
| Coach of the Tournament: | Chris Radmonovich (Wagner College) |
| First Team | |
| Cameron Woldt (Goalie) | Wagner College |
| Ciaran Wolohan | Wagner College |
| Massimiliano Mirachi | Fordham University |
| Jake Miller-Tolt | Fordham University |
| Andras Levai | George Washington University |
| Andrew Mavis | George Washington University |
| Rade Joksimovic | Bucknell University |
| Second Team | |
| Austin Pyrch (Goalie) | George Washington University |
| Vaios Vlahotasios (Goalie) | George Washington University |
| Atakan Destici | George Washington University |
| Jasmin Kolasinac | Wagner College |
| Teo Dadic | Wagner College |
| Finn Banks | Johns Hopkins University |
| Giorgio Cico | Johns Hopkins University |
| Cooper Dolan | Bucknell University |
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| George Washington University | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | 8 |
| Wagner College | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | – | 5 |
| Wagner Goals: | Jasmin Kolasinac (3); Jordi Alonso (2) | |||||
| George Washington Goals: | Atakan Destici (3); Andrew Mavis; Brett Else; Andras Levai; Kerim Sismanoglu; Pierce Deamer | |||||
| Saves: | Wagner – Cameron Woldt (9) ; GW – Vaios Vlahotasios (10, 16 minutes), Austin Pyrch (10, 16 minutes) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Wagner – 6 ; GW – 10 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Wagner – 1-for-10 ; GW – 2-for-6 | |||||
| Sprints: | Wagner – 1-for-4 (3rd) ; GW – 3-for-4 (1st, 2nd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | YC – Wagner (Head coach Chris Radmonovich, 3:03 left in 1st Q); YC – GW (Andras Levai, 33 seconds left in 4th Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Scott Voltz, Val Vasilchikov | |||||
Photo 1: 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Champion – George Washington University; Photo 2: 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Runner-Up – Wagner College; Photo 3:George Washington University head coach Barry King and the Colonials; Photo 4: George Washington University’s Duke Becker (#6) defends; Photo 5: George Washington University’s Andras Levai (#8) shoots on Wagner College goalie (#1) Cameron Woldt; Photo 6: Wagner College head coach Chris Radmonovich and the Seahawks; Photo 7: Wagner College’s Oscar Nomura (#5) shoots past George Washington University’s Brett Else (#4); Photo 8: Wagner College’s Ciaran Wolohan (#12) defends as George Washington University’s Duke Becker (#6) looks on
