Women's Water Polo | 4/15/2017 6:29:00 PM

PROVIDENCE, RI – The eighteenth-ranked Hartwick water polo team got the results it needed with victories over host Brown University and #14 Indiana at Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in Providence, RI on Saturday. With the weekend sweep, the Hawks earn the third seed in the CWPA Championships in two weeks in Bloomington, IN.
           
Hartwick topped Brown by a final score of 15-12 as eight different players found the net. The Hawks then defeated Indiana 8-6 to snap a nine-game winless streak against the Hoosiers. It is their first win over IU since the 2013 season.
           
Against Brown, the Hawks jumped in front to stay at 4:37 of the second quarter. They never led by less than three goals throughout the second half.
           
'Wick trailed 2-0 in the early going of the game, but goals from Lauren Brennan (Canberra, Australia / St. Clares College), Lena Kotanchyan (Moscow, Russia / Elk Island School #368), and Zsofia Polak (Dunaujvaros, Hungary / Rudas HS) would salvage a 3-3 tie at the end of the first quarter.
           
The two teams traded goals in the second quarter until consecutive tallies from Cottle, Polak, and L.J. Edwards (Encinitas, CA / Cathedral Catholic HS) handed the Hawks a 7-4 edge. A second goal from Edward made the score 8-5 in the Hawks' favor at halftime.
           
Two goals from Kotanchyan and one each from Tori Wilson (Kitchener, ONT / Grand River Collegiate Institute), Edwards, and Polak in the third quarter increased the margin to five, 13-8. Maryanna Antoniou (Glyfada, Greece / Second General HS of Glyfada), and Maria Moya (Madrid, Spain / Ortega Y Gasset) goals in the fourth opened up Hartwick's biggest lead of the game at 15-9 before the Hawks settled on the three-goal victory.
           
Polak finished with four goals and two assists. Kotanchyan and Edwards each scored three. Natalie May (Huntington Beach, CA / Edison HS) also dished out a pair of helpers. Josette Santos (Huntington Beach, CA / Edison HS) and Emma Aleksandrovic (Belgrade, Serbia / Medicine School Zvezdara) combined to make seven saves in goal for the Hawks.
           
In the game against IU, the Hawks never led until 2:06 remained in the third quarter. They fell behind 2-0 in the first quarter with Cottle scoring with 10 seconds left to pull them within one, 2-1. Hartwick trailed by two goals twice in the second quarter before Brennan tallied to bring the deficit to 5-4 at halftime.
           
Katie McKenty (Auckland, New Zealand / Takapuna Grammar School) tied the score at 5:24 of the third to spark a three-goal Hartwick rally. Nikolina Mihajlovik (Mississauga, ONT / Silverthorn Collegiate Inst.) put the Hawks ahead for good at the 2:06 mark and McKenty gave the Hawks a two-goal cushion with 36 ticks left. The fourth quarter saw no scoring as the Hawks closed out the victory.
           
Santos played all 32 minutes in goal. She finished the game with nine stops in the victory.
           
With her nine-point performance on the day, Polak broke the 400-point mark for her career and jumped from fourth to second on the all-time program list. She is now one of only three players (Kirsten Hudson, Jessica McKee) in the history of the program to break 400 points.
           
The Hawks will play in the quarterfinal round against sixth-seeded Brown on Friday, April 28 at 3 p.m. at Indiana University. A victory would advance the Hawks into Saturday's semifinal against the winner of #2 Princeton and #7 Bucknell.