Sports water polo

MIT Men’s Water Polo beat Iona College but face a loss against St Francis College

Engineers Men’s Water Polo beat Iona College 11-10 while losing 12-11 to St Francis College

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MIT Water Polo's Kaden DiMarco '22 works to find a pass in Saturday's 11-10 win against Iona College.

MIT Men’s Water Polo played two highly contested matches on Saturday Nov. 2 at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Pool. The men won the first of the two games against Iona College 11-10 while they lost the second game against St Francis College 12-11 after two overtimes.

The match against Iona College started on the wrong foot as Iona scored the first goal 26 seconds into the first quarter. But the Engineers scored four goals right after, ending the quarter 4-1. The spurt featured two goals each by Kevin Downey ’21 and Clyde Huibregtse ’20. The second quarter was not as exciting as only two goals were scored, both by Iona as the deficit came down to one goal. Both teams scored seven goals each in the final two quarters as MIT kept that 1 goal lead, winning the game. The last quarter was particularly exciting as Iona attempted to score a goal, to end the deficit in the final seconds, missing the shot. Throughout the game Downey and Huibregtse scored four goals a piece while Ward Weldon ’20 played a vital role defensively with three steals, and goalkeeper Hayden Niederreiter ’20 made 10 saves.

In the second match, St Francis started the game with a 3-1 first quarter lead.  MIT fought back in the next two quarters and eventually tied the game at 7-7 early in the fourth quarter. Right after MIT got its first lead, Evan Kim ’21 scored with 5:27 left in regulation. St Francis came right back with a goal of their own. Both teams went back and forth, finishing at 10-10 at the end of regulation. The game went into overtime. In the first overtime, none of the teams scored. Right after, in the second overtime, St Francis opened the scoring which was answered right back by MIT senior Huibregtse. The match went on for a bit at the score of 11-11, as the end of the second overtime got closer. Eventually, St Francis first-year Dominick Hevesi scored off a forced turnover, winning the game for St Francis. In this game, Kim played excellently for MIT, scoring three goals in the game. 

The team will next play Brown University on Senior Day, Saturday Nov. 9 at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center.