Aquawomen Capture Harvard Invitational Tournament

The Harvard women's water polo team has seen an awful lot of Brown and MIT this season.

Four games, four wins.

So it wasn't much of a surprise that the Crimson defeated both Brown and MIT Saturday at Blodgett Pool before 50 spectators to win the Harvard Invitational Tournament.

Harvard (6-0) began the day by defeating the Bruins, 10-4, even though the Crimson--since it had to play MIT in the next game--elected not to use its starting line-up against Brown.

As a result, the Crimson got off to a slow start against the Bruins. But then Harvard exploded for three goals in the span of 1:31 at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.

The feature match of the day was a rematch against MIT. Harvard had defeated the Engineers. 9-6. Friday, and if it could do it again, it would pocket the overall championship.

Neither team got off to a fast start; a characteristic which had punctuated the past two Harvard-MIT games dictated that one team or another would get a big early lead. Although the Engineers took an 2-0 lead. Harvard came back to tie the game on goals by junior Stacey Moran and senior Tri-Captain Eileen Pratt before the first quarter ended.

The second period featured two more MIT goals, which were answered by another Moran goal. Only 1:22 into the third quarter. Moran completed a hat trick, converting a length-of-the-pool pass from senior goalie Tamsyn Seimon.

"Tamsyn did a really nice job in the goal." Harvard Coach Chris Hafferty said. "She communicated better. She was a better quarterback today, so that helped us a lot."

Moments later, Tri-Captain Leslie Barbi found fellow senior Emily Ozer, who scored to give Harvard the lead for the first time all day.

But then, the Engineers got three straight goals to take a 7-5 lead with only 5:56 to play in regulation.

"We're a better team than MIT," Hafferty said. "Although we knew what the score was. I don't think we realized that we were in jeopardy until we were down, 7-5."

Harvard proceeded to explode for four straight goals. Pratt started the onslaught, as she converted a pass from Leean O'Connell. Fifty-five seconds after that goal, O'Connell lobbed the ball over the MIT goalie, who was not expecting the shot.

Meanwhile, the Crimson's tempo on the defensive end of the pool was raised several notches. Harvard players were picking up the MIT players even before they reached mid-pool, forcing some bad shots.

"I think the problem with the [MIT] game this morning was that we won the [MIT] game last night and we didn't come out aggressively enough," Hafferty said. "We did the opposite Friday night: we were aggressive, we came out swimming hard and playing hard. I think that our attitude was, `Well, we'll win this game,' and that's what almost games away."

Harvard's defensive pressure led to a power-play goal by Ogilvie, and the Crimson found itself with the lead.

Valerie White had the last chance for the Engineers, but was thwarted when she hit the post.