The Iona Gaels defeated the Wagner Seahawks 10-9 in overtime to win their second straight MAAC tournament to advance to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. Wagner looked like they were going to win the game as they raced out to a 6-2 lead in the second quarter and led 6-3 at the half.
At the start of the third quarter each team exchanged goals to give Wagner a 7-4 lead, but Iona would start to mount their comeback. Iona outscored Wagner 3-1 in the third quarter to make it a 7-6 lead heading into the final quarter.
Alyssa Turza scored her third goal of the game which tied Wagner at seven apiece which was the only goal of the quarter. Iona then took their first lead of the game when Cecilia Leonard converted a penalty shot, but Wagner responded in like time to make it eight goals apiece.
Wagner had a chance to win the game when they drew an exclusion with 55 seconds left, but Iona killed the penalty to send the game to overtime.
Turza scored her fourth goal of the game to put Iona up 9-8 and then Mackenzie Mone put Iona up for good at 10-8 at the end of the first overtime period. Wagner did make the second overtime period interesting as they scored 30 seconds in to make it a 10-9 game.
Wagner had a goal nullified with 53 seconds left due to an offsides call, and then with 23 seconds left Wagner had another shot but they could not convert a game tying goal.
Here is Iona celebrating the win:
2012 MAAC Champs twitter.com/IonaWaterPolo/…
— Iona Water Polo (@IonaWaterPolo) April 29, 2012