Aquamen Split Four at Eastern Meet

PROVIDENCE. R.I. The Harvard men's water polo team split four games in an Eastern Association Tournament at Brown and reasserted their position among the top teams in the East.

The Crimson went into the competition fourth-ranked and should retain that position after-they beat Army and George Washington and dropped tightly contested games to number-two Navy and Bucknell.

The Crimson opened Saturday against the Midshipmen. In a sloppily played match neither team could seem to master the effort needed to put away the game. After the Crimson tied the game at eight with 2:23 remaining Bob Moble skipped a 20-foot shot past Harvard goalie Brian Graham, giving Navy a 9-8 lead.

Despite two subsequent ejection penalties against Mohle, who was eventually thrown out of the game, Harvard could not convert on the crucial man-up situations. Senior Dave Fasi's who had scored three times earlier, was thwarted on repeated attempts to score in the final two minutes. Navy goalie Doug Keller and an unobliging crossbar kept Fasi's shots from hitting home.

After the game Navy Coach Mike Schofield praised Harvard: "They played a great game. The twins up front, Dave and Steve [Munstones] played a tremendous inside game. We knew that they were the key to the Harvard attack and we're unable to stop them. I'm happy we won but not sure that we deserved to."

Harvard Coach Steve Pike was less positive. "I was very disappointed in-our defense. We knew that they had a lot of speed; we played defense by making mistakes. And at the end we didn't have the poise to play well under pressure. We'll beat them next time."

After beating Army, 12-7, and blowing out George Washington, 18-6, the Crimson faced the third-ranked Bucknell Bisons. Through almost the entire first half Harvard played stingy defense. Tremendous pressure allowed Bucknell few offensive opportunities and in goal Graham knocked everything aside. With under two minutes left in the second period Bucknell floated a long arching shot with three seconds left on the shot clock. It sailed over Graham and into the net for the game's initial tally. Rob Strauss evened the score less than a minute later on a breakaway set up by a long Graham pass.

In the second half the defense faltered slightly, and the offense could not convert in man-up situations. The Bisons came on to win, 8-6.

Co-captain Munatones had mixed feelings about the tournament: "Certainly I am disappointed with the outcome. We have to nature a little more. We went to California [on a seven-game pre-season trip] to develop the poise to beat teams like Navy but with only two seniors this trip is still young."

Pike praised Graham and freshman Bruce Novis and promised that "within two weeks a revamped man-up offense will make us look like a new team. Against Bucknell we played well and with a few adjustments we will beat them.

THE NOTEBOOK: The Crimson's seven-game trip to California early this month pitted it against some of the nation's top teams. It compiled a 5-2 record, including a one-point win at highly-rated UCal-San Diego.