M. Water Polo Trounces Boston College

Despite being tired, sick and in the middle of midterm hell, the Harvard men's water polo team rebounded last night and crushed Boston College, 11-2, at Blodgett Pool.

"All week in practice we were really tired," Harvard coach Don Benson '88 said. "Despite having Monday off, the six games at New Monday off, the six games at New York [last weekend] tired us out. Our guys have been broken down and sick."

Healthy, fresh bodies probably wouldn't have made much of a difference. Despite coming out flat, the Crimson slowly mounted an invincible attack.

"We didn't come out real strong in the beginning of this game," freshman Rob Jacobs said. "We expected to get up faster than we did and that didn't happen."

By the final quarter, Harvard looked as if it were playing hot potato and Boston College was caught in the middle of a never-ending game.

The ball bounced from Harvard player to player before someone would end the misery and catapult the ball into the net.

How bad did it get? With only 27 seconds left in the third quarter, sophomore driver Mike Zimmerman spotted junior Andy Davis alone on the left post. Zimmerman whipped a pass towards Davis only to have it tipped by a Boston College player.

Luck would not be a lady for the Eagles as the ball tipped right into Davis' hand and the Harvard sniper put away the goal to give Harvard a 7-1 advantage.

"We needed a good win," Benson said. "There are some areas in our game, of course, that definitely need work like our six-on-fives, but I think we got a good game."

It certainly looked like it did.

Just a minute into the final quarter, Mike Zimmerman (four goals) buried a shot from just left of the net to give Harvard a commanding 8-1 lead.

Seconds later, Harvard players again swarmed around the Boston College zone, whipping the ball around the periphery until finally Davis found captain Jonathan Gill alone in front of the net. With the goalie out of position, Gill extended himself out of the water and lofted the ball into the open right hand corner.

There was another story in the pool, however. After suffering a team tragedy to one of its players, the Boston College squad dedicated this game to its teammate who could not be present.

With that incentive driving the Eagle attack, the Crimson knew before the match started, that emotions could potentially be a deciding force.

"They had the team tragedy and they all had his number on their shoulders so we expected them to come out hard." Gill said.

Fortunately for Harvard, those emotions never took form. Breaking out to an early first quarter, 2-0 lead, it never looked back.

With 5:16 left in the second quarter, Harvard worked the ball around the Boston College defense until Zimmerman ripped a pass to freshman Sam Brooks positioned at the left post. It didn't take long before Brooks hammered the ball into the back of the net to extend Harvard's control on the game.

Two minutes later, Zimmerman, perhaps Harvard's most intimidating driver, buried a four-meter shot to make it, 4-0.

It took Boston College 20 minutes to finally find the net. With a minute left in the third quarter, Harvard was unable to score despite a two man advantage. Boston College, sensing a rare momentum shift, raced down the pool and found a slight opening in the left hand corner past junior goalie Ed Chen to bring the deficit to, 6-1.

Chen was a human wall last night and only one other Eagle shot got by him.

The Crimson can now relax. Well, at least for a week, until it meets its biggest challenge of the season, Brown, at next Saturday's Eastern Qualifying Tournament at Brown.

If Harvard does not fare well at the tournament, last night could be the tournament, last night could be the final time the team played in its own pool. But don't tell the players that.

"It's not an issue. It is not going to happen." Gill said. "Why think that way? We're coming back here."

So the scene is set. Harvard is just hoping at this time to get well rested and healthy so that when it meets Brown, there is no excuse.