LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Water Polo will take the pool to begin regular season competition in 2020 with both a slew of newcomers and a regime of experienced veterans this weekend. The Saints will travel to Providence, Rhode Island to face off with four squads at the Bruno Classic on the campus of Brown University, with the tournament serving as the head coaching debut of Alex Williams.
Siena will begin its 2020 season by facing tournament host Brown on Friday, January 31, at 7 PM. The Green and Gold will then take on first time foe Austin College on Saturday, February 1 at 10:30 AM, and will conclude the day in search of its first-ever victory (0-4) against Saint Francis (PA) at 2:15 PM. The Saints will wrap the weekend by taking on Bucknell on Sunday, February 2 at 3 PM.
Each of Siena's four matches held at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center will be available to watch on ESPN+, which is available to purchase with a monthly subscription. Game sheets with full box scores will be available following each match on SienaSaints.com, with live updates during each match available by following @SienaWaterPolo on Twitter.
Entering his first season at the helm of the program, Williams will gear up for the first of four scheduled non-conference tournaments that the team will compete in this season. The weekend features a pair of matchups against teams mentioned in the latest CWPA Top-25 poll, with Brown receiving votes and Bucknell ranked no. 23. Siena set a program record last season by facing 13 teams that were either ranked or receiving votes in the poll.
Leading the Saints into what will be her fourth season, incoming senior captain Diana Fernandez is poised to be one of the MAAC's top scoring threats this season and could end her career as one of the greatest to wear the Green and Gold. Recently named a Preseason All-MAAC Selection for the second consecutive season, this Chicago, Illinois native is coming off a campaign in which she garnered All-MAAC honors for the third straight year and became the program's first All-American honoree, earning an AWPC All-American Honorable Mention nod. Fernandez enters 2020 ranked inside the program's all-time top-10 in six different offensive categories: Exclusions drawn (first), shots (fourth), goals (fourth), points (fifth), steals (fifth) and assists (tied for seventh).
Aside from the team's lone graduating member, Siena returns five more of it's top-6 scorers from 2019, including sophomores Georgia Vargas and Bianca Prinsloo and juniors Sophia Torres, Anna Borton and Kristen Burger. Vargas ranked second on the team in goals (51) and points (61) during her rookie campaign, while Torres and Prinsloo tied for second in assists (29), Prinsloo steadied the team in steals (53) and Borton and Burger acted as viable secondary scoring options.
The team's returners will be complemented by six newcomers in the pool this season, the team's most new add-ons since 2015. Goalies Sydney Jones and Anna Mossakowski are expected to split time in-between-the-pipes, while Grace Boeve and Danni Croteau will add depth on the defensive front. Finally, Maggie Verduijn travels to the Capital Region from the Netherlands as just the second-ever international player in program history and Lily Graham will look to make an impact at the utility position as the program's first-ever Oregonian recruit.
The Saints are looking to build on a 9-23 mark from 2019, which featured the best non-conference output since the 2007 season. Siena will take part in the MAAC's new single-match conference format, which differs from the previous round-robin "conference weekends" that were held in the past. The Saints will aim to finish as one of the league's top- four teams and qualify for the MAAC Championship for what would be the third time in program history.
