Aquadudes Play Weekend Hosts

The Harvard men's water polo squad gets its first opportunity to showcase its new look to the home fans at Blodgett Pool this weekend as it hosts an Eastern League Tournament.

More importantly for Crimson Coach Chris Hafferty, this weekend will be his players' first opportunity to showcase their talent and teamwork after finally having gotten significant practice time under their belts.

Youngsters

"We are a young team," Hafferty said, "and it's taking time for us to get used to playing with each other. We haven't had the practice time that other teams can afford, but now I feel we're coming along pretty nicely."

Harvard (2-2) has been sparked this year by the goaltending and counterattacking of Greg Beber. In the Crimson's 11-8 win over M.I.T. last week, Beber made eight saves, four steals and two assists.

"Our transition game has been helped by Beber getting the ball out quickly," Haffery said. "But even if we don't score off the break, we have seven or eight more seconds on the shot clock to work with the ball on offense because Beber's getting the ball down so quickly."

Machine Guns

Offensively, Harvard has found two lethal weapons in freshmen Peter Richards and Todd Forman. At the hole-setter position, Captain Eric Bentley and Andy Freed have played well, trying to fill the shoes of graduated Bill Wolffe.

"Our play is looking a lot better at the [hole-setter] position," Hafferty said, "and our hole defender, Kio Lippett, has been excellent."

Look for the Crimson to break as much as possible this weekend behind the strong arm of Beber and the speed of junior Nick Branca.

Harvard will play Boston College at 10 a.m. and Princeton at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow. If the Crimson wins its two games tomorrow, it will compete for the tournament championship at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday against the winner of the other bracket (Fordham, Richmond, Yale). The Crimson beat Fordham, 9-8, to win this tournament last year.

"Fordham will be tough, but we're looking good in practice," Hafferty said. "At moments, this team has played some of the best water polo I've ever seen here at Harvard. Our goal is to play at that level for a continuous string of moments. I think we can win all three games."