2017 Wagner College Men’s Water Polo Schedule
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Wagner College head men’s water polo coach Chris Radmonovich has announced the 2017 schedule, unveiling a 32-match slate, which includes five non-conference invitationals as well as 10 Mid Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) East Region bouts.
The second-year program, which finished fifth in both the regular season standings as well as the MAWPC Championship, enters the 2017 season with another demanding schedule.
For the second straight year, the Seahawks open the season on Labor Day weekend with four matches at the Brown University Bruno Classic in Providence, R.I. The Green & White will face a pair of West Coast teams, California Baptist University and University of the Pacific, on September 2 before battling Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University on September 3. The matchup with MIT will be one to look forward to after the Seahawks suffered a 14-13 loss to the Engineers in 2016.
Radmonovich, who doubles as the head coach of Wagner’s four-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Champoion women’s water polo team, then takes his squad to New Jersey to compete in the Princeton Invitational on September 9-10. The Seahawks begin the weekend with their first league game against the United States Naval Academy. The neophyte program went 2-1 against the Midshipmen in 2016, including a 16-13 victory in the final game of its rookie season, to secure a fifth-place finish in the MAWPC Championship. Wagner will end the weekend with matchups against Chapman University and Brown on September 10.
From there, the Seahawks will travel to Lewisburg, Pa. to compete in the Bucknell University Bison Invitational. Wagner will face Mercyhurst University and Gannon University on Saturday, September 16, before taking on the University of Toronto and Salem International University on September 17.
The Green & White will then look to challenge the first of its three New York rivals, Iona College in a midweek showdown on September 20. Last year, Michael Randazzo called the Wagner Seahawks: “Kings of New York Water Polo” after defeating all three Division I programs in the New York City area: Fordham University, Iona College and St. Francis College Brooklyn. Wagner ended the trio of victories with a 6-5 triumph over Iona on October 15, 2016 behind four goals from rising sophomore Matthew Miller (San Ramon, Calif./California).
The Seahawks will host their second-ever homestand September 30-to-October 1, welcoming league members George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University and the United States Naval Academy to the Spiro Sports Center. Last October, Wagner celebrated upsets over the Blue Jays and the Midshipmen at home, winning 13-11 and 15-13, respectively.
The young program will finish the week on the road, encountering Princeton on October 5 and 2016 MAWPC Champion Bucknell on October 7.
The following weekend, the Seahawks travel to Cambridge, Mass. for a three-game stint at the Harvard Invitational. After playing Bucknell again on October 14, the Green & White will face their second New York City rival, St. Francis Brooklyn, on October 15. In its ninth game of its existence, Wagner defeated then No. 18-ranked St. Francis Brooklyn, 12-11, in an exciting ending where rising senior Ciaran Wolohan (Manly Australia / St. Aloysius [Golden West College]) netted the game-winning goal with one second left on the clock. Before heading home, the Seahawks will play their second game of the season against the Princeton Tigers at 3:30 p.m..
Before flying to the West Coast to face Stanford University on October 20 and compete in the Julian Fraser Memorial on October 21-22, the Green & White will challenge Fordham in the Bronx on October 18. In its short stint, the Wagner men’s water polo program has already developed a rivalry with the Rams. Located just 38 miles across the Verrazano Bridge, Fordham leads the series 2-1 after defeating Wagner 9-7 in the first round of the MAWPC Championship.
The Green & White will end the regular season with its remaining three conference games, against Fordham, George Washington and Johns Hopkins, before embarking to Annapolis, Md. for the MAWPC Championship. The opening round will be held on November 17, with the championship game to be played on November 19.
The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid to the 2017 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship held on December 2-3 at the Uytengsu Aquatic Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on the campus of the University of Southern California.
Release courtesy Wagner College Athletics Communications
