Cambridge, Mass. (October 16, 2021)—The Mount St. Mary's men's water polo team dropped a pair of games at the Harvard Invitational today.  The Mountaineers were edged by MIT, 11-9, in the opening game of the day before falling to Brown, 16-7, this evening.  Jason O'Donnell collected five goals to lead the Mount offense on the day while Kiahi Horan had a two goals and six assists.  The Mount falls to 5-12 on the season.

MIT 11, Mount St. Mary's 9 

Team                    1     2     3      4    FINAL
Mount St. Mary's        3     2     1      3      9
MIT                     4     1     2      4     11
 
Mount St. Mary's Goals: O'Donnell 3, Fischer 2 , Thalos 1, Horan 1, Lemishko 1, Wallace-Whitfield 1

In the opening game for the Mountaineers at the Harvard Invitational, MIT prevailed, 11-9, in a hard-fought matchup.  The Engineers were able to hold off the Mount in the final quarter to earn the win.

Jason O'Donnell led the Mountaineers with three goals while Zach Fisher added a pair of scores.  Kiahi Horan had a goal and a team-high four assists while Eli Thalos chipped in a goal and a pair of helpers.  Michael Lemishko and Nicholas Wallace-Whitfield also scored for the Mount while Kacper Cieplik chipped in a pair of assists.  Goalkeeper Marko Kruska had 10 saves.

MIT jumped out to early 2-0 and 3-1 advantages before goals by Lemisko and O'Donnell evened the score late in the first quarter.  The Engineers were able to take a 4-3 lead after one quarter of play with a goal with 42 seconds left in the opening period.

The Mount evened the score twice in the second quarter, including Wallace-Whitfield's marker with 10 seconds left that sent the game to the half even at 5-5.

O'Donnell's goal 2:08 into the third quarter gave the Mount its first lead of the contest, but MIT rallied to score twice to close out the third with a one-goal lead.  The Mount was unable to cut into the deficit in the final quarter, falling by the score of 11-9.
 
Brown 16, Mount St. Mary's 7
 
Team                    1     2     3      4    FINAL
Mount St. Mary's        0     0     4      3      7
Brown                   7     3     4      2     16   
 
Mount St. Mary's Goals: O'Donnell 2, Thalos 1, Horan 1, Cieplik 1, Ficsher 1  

In the second game of the day, the Mount saw Brown score seven times in the opening quarter to take control of the game en route to a 16-7 victory.  The Bears added three more scores in the second quarter for a 10-0 lead at the break.

Midway through the third quarter, Eli Thalos got the Mountaineers on the scoreboard, igniting a 4-1 run that cut the deficit to 14-4 heading into the fourth quarter.  The Mount added three goals in the final period.

Jason O'Donnell led the Mount with a pair of scores while Thalos and Kiahi Horan each added a goal and two assists in the game.  Kacper Cieplik and Zach Fischer also notched goals in the contest while goalkeeper Marko Kruska made nine saves in the game.

UP NEXT:  The Mountaineers will face Connecticut College at 1:00 p.m. and Harvard at 4:45 p.m. tomorrow to close out the Harvard Invitational.