The Iona Gaels won their second straight regular season MAAC championship and have earned the No. 1 seed for the MAAC tournament which will take place on April 28 - 29. Iona has won 11 straight games and avenged their only league loss to the Marist Red Foxes 12-10 back on April 17.
This past weekend when Iona clinched they defeated the VMI Keydets 22-7 and then needed sudden death overtime to defeat the Wagner Seahawks 11-10 in sudden death overtime. Heading into the game against Wagner the MAAC title had already been won by Iona, however Wagner is a team that Iona could see in the MAAC title game.
In the Wagner contest Iona held a 4-2 halftime lead, but in the third quarter the Wagner offense came alive to outscore Iona 5-2 to take a 7-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter Iona pulled ahead 10-9, but Wagner sophomore Stacy McGregor converted the game tying goal from the outside to force overtime.
In overtime neither team was able to score in the two, three-minute periods, so the game went into sudden death. The game winner came with 1:30 left in the first sudden death period when Iona's Georgina Lee was on a breakaway when Wagner forced a penalty shot which Lee converted to seal the 11-10 win for Iona.
Iona will take on the Villanova Wildcats in the semifinal matchup for the conference tournament. Villanova finished with a 4-8 MAAC record which actually tied both St. Francis and Siena, but they won the tiebreaker. Iona easily defeated Villanove 14-3 and 14-4 this year, and essentially are already in the MAAC title game against Wagner or Marist for a shot at their second straight NCAA tournament.