Aquamen to Host N.E. Tourney at Blodgett

The Harvard men's water polo team will gets it first taste of action as the "ones to beat" this weekend when the Crimson hosts a round-robin New England League Tournament at Blodgett Pool.

The 19th-ranked Crimson first broke into the NCAA Top-20 rankings on Monday after winning three of its five games in the Ivy League Tournament at Providence last weekend. One of the victories was a thrilling 9-7 overtime win over then 20th-ranked Army.

"The kids were thrilled when the rankings came out," Harvard Coach Chris Hafferty said. "They have been receiving favorable comments from students around campus and whenever you get that from your peers outside the sport, it does a lot to boost your confidence."

Harvard will be looking to improve its rankings in the East in this weekend's tournament. Navy, Brown, Bucknell and Washington & Lee are the other Eastern teams ranked ahead of the Crimson in the national polls.

The Schedule

Harvard will open the tournament at 6:30 p.m. today with a showdown against M.I.T., a team the Crimson has beaten twice already this year, including a 17-9 pasting in the Beanpot final one week ago.

Tomorrow's schedule for the Crimson includes an 11:30 a.m. match against a tough University of Massachusetts squad, which Harvard beat, 9-4, two weeks ago, and a 6:30 p.m. game against Yale.

The aquamen will try to win their third consecutive match over Boston College this year at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday before their showdown with Brown at 5:45 p.m. in a game that is expected to determine the tournament's champion. The Crimson lost to the nationally ranked Bruins, 11-7, last Sunday.

The Goal

The Crimson will be looking to improve upon a suddenly lackluster man-advantage offense. In their 9-7 loss to Air Force in last weekend's tournament, the aquamen converted only one of six power-play opportunities.

"Our man-up situations have suddenly become very unproductive," Hafferty said. "We'll be playing some different people in different positions this weekend in an attempt to break out of our slump."

Harvard has also been experiencing problems on its opponents power plays, in which each player is responsible for covering two of the opponents in a zone-type form of defense.

"We made a lot of mistakes defensively against Brown and Air Force," Hafferty noted. "We have to have guys hold their positions a little longer before switching over to cover their other man."

Harvard's aggressive, full-pool pressure should give the team a big advantage over its opponents in this weekend's competition--if the squad can steer away from ejections and man-down situations.

The Lineup

Hafferty is currently starting five freshmen and one sophomore along with senior goalie Greg Beber. The starting Yardlings are Peter Richards, Todd Forman, Mike Johnson, Steve Kan, and Kio Lippitt, who are joined by Beber and sophomore John Marshall.

Also seeing significant playing time for Harvard is John Griffin, Co-Captain Eric Bentley, Nick Branca, Joe Kaufman, Bruce Burkley and Andy Freed.

Richards leads the squad in scoring with 31 goals. Forman has tallied 19 times, Bentley 17 times, Johnson 16 times, and Freed rounds out the Crimson top five scoring list with 15 goals.

Beber, considered by many on the squad to be the team's MVP so far this year, has posted an 8-4 record in 1988. Reserve goalie Scott Frewing has won all three of his starts, including Harvard's first two wins over B.C. and its 16-12 victory over Dartmouth last weekend.