It came down to the final minutes of play, but Siena Water Polo succeeded in holding off a potential comeback effort from MAAC foe Villanova to earn its first conference win of the 2019 season Sunday afternoon. The Saints wrapped up weekend play in Brooklyn, New York with a 12-10 victory over the Wildcats to end a 12-game losing streak and earn a victory over their Keystone State rivals for the third straight season.
Led by the 11th hat trick of the season from junior Diana Fernandez, the Saints raced out to a 6-3 advantage after a period of play, with sophomore Sophia Torres and freshmen Bianca Prinsloo and Georgia Vargas each also scoring to start the game. Following a 9-4 lead at the half, the Wildcats began a comeback attempt in the second half, matching Siena's two goals in the third quarter, and then scoring four straight times to come within a point with just over three-and-a-half minutes to play. With their lead reduced to one, Vargas cemented the two-goal lead with her second of the game at the 3:10 mark, with the team recoding a pair of steals in the final three minutes of the game.
Prinsloo finished the contest with a hat trick of her own, while Fernandez led the team with four goals and six points, and sophomore Kristen Burger and senior Danielle Fuertes also found the back of the net. Senior goalkeeper and reigning MAAC Defensive Player of the Week Kennedy Joseph played the duration of the contest in-goal to finish the weekend playing every minute of all three matches and adding 11 more saves to her name.
Though they were mathematically eliminated from reaching to 2019 MAAC Championship Tournament this weekend, the Saints will have one final to improve on their record this year, which has now tied 2018's wins mark for the most overall since 2013. Siena will head to Philadelphia, PA to close out the regular season with four more conference matches. The Green and Gold will take on Marist and Wagner Saturday, April 13, before facing St. Francis (NY) and La Salle the following day.
