Women's Water Polo | 4/30/2016 7:17:00 PM

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Fourteenth ranked Indiana out-scored the twenty-first ranked Hartwick water polo team 3-2 in overtime to pull out a 12-11 victory in the CWPA semifinal round on Saturday at Harvard's Blodgett Pool. The loss is 'Wick's fifth in the semifinals in the last six seasons.
           
Hartwick led 9-7 with under two and a half minutes remaining in the game. The Hoosiers would tie the score with goals 35 second apart to force extra time. Indiana grabbed the early lead in the overtime but Charlotte Cottle (Blakehurst, Australia/Presbyterian Ladies College) answered to tie the score with 17 seconds left for the Hawks. Eleven seconds later, IU took the lead, 11-10, heading into the final three minutes of action.
           
Zsofia Polak (Dunaujvaros, Hungary/Rudas HS) registered her sixth goal of the game with 2:20 to go to even the score for the final time. Sarah Young netted what would prove to be the game-winner for the Hoosiers with 1:27 remaining.
           
The game was close throughout with eight tie scores. The teams were separated by one goal or less for all but 4:31 in the 38 minutes of the game.
           
Polak would register the Hawks' first two goals in the first quarter, which gave them 1-0 and 2-1 leads. IU would net the final two of the period to take a 3-2 advantage.
           
The Hoosiers increased the edge to 4-2 in the second period, before Polak and Katie McKenty (Auckland, New Zealand/Takapuna Grammar School) would each score to knot the score at 4-4. IU scored with 32 seconds left to head into halftime up 5-4.
           
After Indiana found the net 2:40 into the third quarter in increase its lead to 6-4, Brittany Tait (Kariong, Australia/Harry Kendall HS) and Polak scored to tie the score again and the two teams entered the fourth quarter deadlocked at 6-6.
           
The two teams traded goals early in the fourth. Nikolina Mihajlovik (Mississauga, ONT/Silverthorn Collegiate Inst.) would net the 'Wick goal. Polak and McKenty then scored goals and the Hawks found themselves up 9-7 with 3:13 left in regulation. The Hoosiers pulled within one after 46 seconds and evened the score after 35 more ticks to force overtime.
           
Michaela Davies (Cronulla, Australia/Kirawee) would make 16 saves in goal for the Hawks. She stopped six shots in the opening quarter and added another five in the fourth.
           
Hartwick (16-13) will wrap up its season tomorrow against seventeenth ranked Princeton. The Tigers fell in the other semifinal 9-8 to the top-seeded Michigan Wolverines. The Hawks and Tigers begin play at 12 p.m.