Despite ending the regular season going 1-2 in New York over the weekend, this season’s water polo team has achieved unique success at Villanova. The team clinched a spot in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Water Polo Championship tournament for the first time since 2016.

A key contributor to the team’s success has been junior goalie Gracin Kerry. 

The tournament will take place at the end of April. The Wildcats ended the season 20-11 overall, while their 7-5 conference record propelled them back into the postseason after nearly a decade.

“It’s hard work, and it’s not just this season,” head coach Michael Gordon said. “It’s been the last few seasons where we’ve really seen a shift in the mental toughness and the physical willingness to put the hard work in the pool, swim conditioning and polo conditioning in the weight room.”

The team’s spot in the postseason came down to the final games, determined in large part by its performance over the past two weekends. Her standout performances helped lead the team to a three-game sweep over Marist (16-13), Iona (16-14), and La Salle (11-5) from April 5–7.

The team followed it up with a decisive win against Virginia Military Institute (22-13) on Sunday, April 13.

“We knew coming into [April 5-7] that it was going to be the most important weekend of the season,” Kerry said. “Our goal coming in was to go 3-0 because we knew that if we did that, we would have a great spot at making the MAAC Championships. This whole season we’ve known it’s going to come down to that weekend, so I really just wanted to hone in and make sure that I was really locked in for every single game.”

Kerry is from California, which is the same for 13 of her 20 teammates. Specifically she is from the Long Beach area, and decided to trade the West Coast for the East.

“I always knew that I wanted to try something different and come to the East Coast,” Kerry said. “I knew that college would be the perfect experience to try something new, and it was the best decision. When I came on my official visit, I absolutely loved the team culture here. It also had my major and absolutely everything I was looking for.”

Needing a strong goalie to fill in the big shoes of record-setting goalies like Sarah Shaw (‘23) and Abigail Shelby (‘24), Villanova locked in on Kerry as its number-one choice when recruiting her.

“[Kerry] was on our recruiting radar and we saw her play,” Gordon said. “We really liked what she does in goal. She played at a high level for high school and club so we targeted her as our number one goalie for the [2026] class that we were trying to bring in.”

In the game against Marist, Kerry recorded 11 saves, including two crucial stops while the Wildcats were down a player. She followed that performance with a weekend-high 13 saves on Senior Night against Iona, also contributing two assists to help honor seniors Adrienne Grimes, Emma Grabbenstetter, Emily McKenzie, and Amelia Baca.

“We knew that Marist was going to be the hardest game but it went well,” Kerry said. “Our team came out strong. Honestly, the crowd at that game really propelled us all forward. It was just such an amazing energy to celebrate all of our seniors.”

In the last game against La Salle, Kerry had 11 saves and for the final 13:22 minutes did not allow a goal from the Explorers. 

“[Kerry] got her hand on a lot of stuff and we built leads,” Gordon said. “When teams build leads, other teams start trying to claw their way back into games. They try to shoot earlier, maybe from a little bit further out, and [Kerry] did a great job of stopping a lot of those shots and boarding any comeback opportunities that teams try to put on us.”

This performance landed Kerry her fourth MAAC Defensive Player of the Week title on the season. It tied a program record for career weekly awards, held by current assistant coach Kaysie Stuba (’22) and Dominique Clark (’18).

Kerry is currently fourth in program history, passing Abigail Shelby ‘24 and Maddi Moore ‘14 with 470 career saves. Additionally, she is fourth in all-time goalie wins with 32. As a senior next season, she has the chance to move into third for career saves and will move into second for career wins, only needing four more wins.

Looking forward to the postseason, Villanova is set to face Iona in the first round of the MAAC Tournament hosted at Marist on April 25. The teams have met two times before in the regular season, with the Wildcats claiming the win both times (noon, ESPN+).

“This is uncharted waters for us,” Gordon said. “In my time, we’ve never qualified for this tournament, so this is our first time there. But we have positioned ourselves very nicely to make a deep run to the championship game.”