One of the more inspirational—and increasingly successful—stories in NCAA women’s varsity water polo, is to be found at the Spiro Athletic Center in Staten Island, New York. The Seahawks of Wagner College (21-7; 6-0 MAAC), a small, private liberal arts college situated nine miles from Manhattan’s Wall Street, have arguably the best women’s program in the Northeast, and, due to challenging aquatics conditions, perhaps the country’s most successful per cubic foot.
Wagner, whose winning streak against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foes has reached an unimaginable 54-straight—including the past five MAAC titles—has only one foe, Marist (15-12; 6-1 MAAC), with a realistic chance of blunting the Seahawks strike for six.
Driving Wagner is its hyperfocused head coach, Chris Radmonovich, whose passion for the sport has clearly infected his players. A Senior Day match-up last Sunday against MAAC rival Villanova turned into a one-sided affair, as the Seahawks sent wave after wave of attackers against the Wildcats’ hapless goalie in a 26-5 win.
Not a lot of room on the Wagner pool deck—but there’s more then enough for winning. Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo
Despite a lopsided opening half, Radmonovich continued to play his starters, including Erika Hardy (68 goals so far in 2019; 251 overall), who will finish her career at Wagner this spring among the all-time leading scorers in program history, junior Jacqui Sjorgren (48 goals), and a pair of freshmen, Daisy Nankervis (47), like Sjorgren from Australia, and Sofia Diaz Alvarez (77 goals to lead the team) from Madrid. There may be no squad in the East that can beat them when they’re playing up-tempo polo. Alvarez in particular is an exceptionally skilled player with a bright future ahead of her.
Half of the 20 Seahawks on the roster are foreign-born, hailing from Canada and New Zealand in addition to Australia and Spain. They’ve been a critical component of the squad’s continued dominance and have been instrumental in producing first-round NCAA wins the past two years, the only wins Wagner Athletics have ever enjoyed in NCAA post-season competition.
Chris Radmonovich; architect of Seahawk success. Photo Courtesy: Wagner Athletics
Not to say that the Seahawks are invulnerable—far from it. Harvard has already beaten them twice, and a week ago, Marist took them to the limit at the Loyola Marymount Invitational. It took a half-tank buzzer-beater by Kristy Donkin to give Wagner an 11-10 win in a match may or may not count as an official MAAC contest.
Since Chris Vidale arrived at Marist two years ago after a stint as an assistant to Brian Kelly at Iona, the Red Foxes have also begun loading up on foreign-born talent. Freshman Myriam Lizotte is a member of Canada’s junior national team, and will be fighting for a spot on the Canuck squad that will compete at the FINA Junior World Championships in Portugal next September.
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Lizotte is seeking to earn a place in the Marist starting rotation, but as of now she’s crowded out by seniors Susan Cantoni (29 goals), Grace Doerfler (37), Ariana Singer (26) and Katherine Tijerina (36), as well as junior Anais Mathes (team-high 39 goals). But—based on Lizotte’s 31 goals so far this season—it’s tough to keep her on the bench. Besides international players like Lizotte and Megan Clarke (England), Vidale’s other players come from California. Of a total of 21 players on the Red Fox roster, 18 are from the Golden State; Doerfler is the lone American non-Californian.
But back to Wagner: Not everyone is patient enough to endure the wait that playing for the Seahawks entails. Jasmin Kolasinac, who in two years set all sorts of scoring records for a men’s program in existence a mere three years, decided he wanted a more direct path to the NCAA tournament and earlier this year transferred to Cal Berkeley. His defection may delay the Seahawk men’s ascent to an NCAA tournament berth, but, given their female counterparts’ success, that goal seems inevitable.
Jasmine Kolasinac couldn’t wait for a Seahawk men’s NCAA berth—but it’s coming. Photo Courtesy: Wagner Athletics
Certainly, the Seahawk women looked unbeatable against an overmatched Villanova squad. In that offensive explosion in their own pool, tying their season-high total registered the day before against La Salle, Radmonovich’s team registered a perfect 4-0 weekend, and are looking to extend their exceptional MAAC win streak. Marist may eventually chase their rivals down—they’ll have another opportunity two weeks from now when St. Francis College hosts all the MAAC teams—but the Red Foxes will have to bring their A game to overcome the ferocious intensity of the Wagner attack and the close quarters of the St. Francis pool configuration—similar to the Spiro Center pool.
There’s likely to be one last meeting this season between them in the MAAC final seven weeks from now, hosted at Marist’s McCann Natatorium, as it has been since the conference inaugurated women’s polo 17 years ago. If that pairing occurs, it will be the Red Foxes’ sixth straight conference title match, and Wagner’s ninth. It’s not likely that the Seahawks will be beaten—but that’s why they play the games.