Annapolis, Md. – (November 24, 2024) – Behind a four-goal performances by
Luca Silvestri and
Andras Toth, as well as a double-digit save effort from
Thomas Lercari, the #3/4 Fordham water polo team won the 2024 MAWPC Championship for the fourth consecutive season with an 18-11 win over 20
th-ranked Navy in Annapolis, Maryland on Sunday afternoon.
With the win, Fordham improves to 31-0 on the season and earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship, which will be held on December 6-8 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
The intensity and emotions were high throughout the contest, but Fordham took advantage of early fouls on Navy, scoring twice on penalty shots and twice with the man-advantage to take a 5-4 lead after the first quarter.
Jacopo Parrella scored two of the Rams' five tallies in the quarter.
Fordham then started to pull away from Navy in the second quarter, scoring the first four goals of the period to build a 9-4 lead.
Luca Silvestri scored two of those, while
Lucas Nieto Jasny and
Andras Toth added the others. Navy did net the final goal of the period, making it a 9-5 contest at halftime.
The Rams had another strong start to the period, as Silvestri scored his third goal of the game on the power play, while
Barnabas Eppel also scored with the man-up edge for an 11-5 lead.
The teams kept trading goals into the fourth quarter, where Navy got back within four at 14-10 with six minutes left in the game. However, back-to-back goals by Toth got the lead back out to six, 16-10, with two minutes left.
Tyler Fahey added two more goals to the Fordham ledger for the 18-11 final score.
For Fordham, Silvestri and Toth each had four goals in the game with Toth adding three steals and two blocks defensively. Parrella had two goals, two assists, and a steal with George Papnikolaou having a goal and three assists. Fahey and Provenziani each had two markers with the final tallies by Eppel,
James Oriskovich, and Nieto Jasny. In net,
Thomas Lercari was a wall, making 13 stops in goal in the win.
Following the championship, Parrella was named the Most Valuable Player of the Championship, compiling eight goals, two assists, and six steals in three games, while head coach
Brian Bacharach was named the Coach of the Championship. Parrella was then joined on the All-Championship First Team by Lercari (27 saves, 3 saves), Eppel (6 goals, 2 assists, 5 exclusions drawn) and Silvestri (5 goals, 5 assists), while Oriskovich (4 goals, 2 steals, 4 exclusions drawn) was named Honorable Mention
The Rams will now await the announcement of the NCAA Championship bracket, which will happen on Monday, November 25
th at noon on NCAA.com.
