No. 20 Princeton University Pounces on No. 22 Brown University, 11-8, to Claim 2022 Collegiate Water Polo Association Division I Championship Third Place Game

No. 20 Princeton University-vs.-No. 22 Brown University Scoresheet (2022 Collegiate Water Polo Association Division I Championship – Game #9/Third Place)

LEWISBURG, Pa. — Nicole Kresich (Sr., Hermosa Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) and Kayla Yelensky (Fr., Stamford, Conn./Greenwich Academy) both notched hat-tricks to share Player of the Game accolades as the No. 20-ranked Tigers of Princeton University built a narrow 5-4 lead by halftime and exploited a 6-4 scoring advantage in the second half to hold off the No. 22 Brown University Bears, 11-8, in the Third Place game at the 2022 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division I Championship.

Competing at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, the Tigers (21-10, 8-4 CWPA Division I) – who were making the program’s 24th appearance at the CWPA Championship since becoming a varsity program in 1997 – raise their record to 3-0 against fellow Ivy League institution Brown (25-15, 7-5 CWPA Division I) in 2022 as Princeton previously claimed 12-6 (February 27 at Bucknell) and 10-6 (April 10 at Brown) wins.

Princeton needed to rally back in the first quarter as the Bears mauled the Tigers for scores by Claire Pisani (Jr., Redwood City, Calif./Castilleja School) and Bryn Gioffredi (Jr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach) at 6:26 and 4:43, respectively, to lumber out to a 2-0 lead.  Yelensky squared the squads prior to the conclusion of the opening eight-minute frame by connecting for natural (2:36) and man-up (43 seconds) strikes to make it two-all.

Princeton went ahead to stay with 5:23 left in the second quarter as Kaila Carroll (So., Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) converted a six-on-five chance before Meera Burghardt (So., Manhattan Beach, Calif./Harvard Westlake) deposited a marker at 3:36 to double-up Brown at 4-2.

Lily Weiser (Jr., Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) whizzed in a power-play opportunity at 1:56 to close the gap to one (4-3) prior to Jovana Sekulic (Fr., Belgrade, Serbia/The Episcopal Academy (Pa.) (1:08, man-up) and Zoe King (Jr., Almaden, Calif./Leland) (00:00, man-up) converting on extra-athlete opportunities to lock the scoreboard at 5-4 in favor of Princeton heading into halftime.

Princeton dominated the third quarter as Kresich (6:02, 4:39), Yelensky (3:49) and Kate Mallery (Fr., Stanford, Conn./Henry M. Gunn) (52 seconds) found the Bears’ den for back-to-back-to-back-to-back strikes to flip the score to 9-4 in favor of the Black & Orange.

However, Brown refused to take an early off-season slumber as Gioffredi (6:42, man-up; 5:01) and King (5:53) combined for a trio of tallies to shrink the Bears’ deficit to 9-7.

Princeton expanded its lead back to four by the two minutes mark as Kresich (2:26) and Sekulic (2:11) dented the twine prior to Claire Poissonnier (Fr., Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill) putting away the seventh man-up goal of the contest with one minute left for the 11-8 final score.

For Brown – which has placed first (2001), second (2003), fourth (2004, 2009, 2012, 2022), fifth (2000, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019), sixth (2002, 2010, 2018), seventh (2005, 2016, 2017) and ninth (2011) at the CWPA Championship since 2000 – Gioffredi (three) and King (two) tallied multi-goal games.  Weiser, Poissonnier and Pisani each chipped in single points as the Bears garner the sixth Top Four finish in program history.

Yelensky (three) and Kresich (three) keyed the Tigers’ attack with Sekulic (two), Mallery (one), Burghardt (one) and Carroll (one) also finding the back of the cage as the Tigers have now placed first (2000, 2012, 2013, 2015), second (2001, 2007, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019), third (2008, 2010, 2016, 2022). fourth (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006), fifth (2011) and sixth (2004, 2009) since 2000 at the CWPA Championship.  The 2020 and 2021 seasons were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.