NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Austin College women's water polo team made history on Saturday, becoming the first program in its first year to ever advance to the Collegiate Water Polo Association Division III title game with a 7-2 win over Carthage in the semifinal round. The inaugural season for Austin College continues tomorrow as the 'Roos take on Macalester.
Austin College improves to 8-8 overall with the victory, and the No. 10-ranked 'Roos will be looking to pick up the program's first win over No. 8-ranked Macalester, the two-time defending CWPA champions. Earlier this season, the 'Roos fell to the Scots 11-7 in the program's first ever game on March 2, and 8-6 on March 30. Tomorrow's title game is set for 1:30 p.m. Eastern, and can be streamed via pay-per-view, with details on host school Connecticut College's website at camelathletics.com. The cost to stream tomorrow's title game is $10.
The 'Roos earned the chance to compete for the conference title with their third win over Carthage this season, using a dominant defensive performance led by Madison Taylor and Valery Piachonkina. Taylor was named the player of the game for her outstanding contributions, while Piachonkina had 13 blocks in goal for the 'Roos.
Presley Woods got the scoring started for Austin College midway through the first quarter, and the lead grew to 2-0 when Woods tallied again with just nine seconds left in the period. Lexi Wong, who scored eight goals in the team's opening round win over Penn State Behrend, got on the board in the second quarter to make it 3-0, but Carthage would break through with a goal to make it 3-1 at halftime.
Carthage cut it to a one goal game early in the third quarter, but that's when the Austin College defense would clamp down, out-scoring Carthage 4-0 the rest of the way. Wong scored to push it to a 4-2 lead to open up the fourth quarter, and Taylor scored to push it to a 5-2 game. Brooke Le added a goal with just over four minutes to play, and Wong put the capper on the victory with a goal at the 3:53 mark. Wong led the way with three goals, and Woods finished with two.