Women's Water Polo Rolls Over Regional Foes

Whoopee.

There's not much more reaction to muster for the Harvard women's water polo team, which blistered four divisional opponents this weekend.

Harvard (5-2) is a member of the North Region within the College Water Polo Association's Northeast Division. In the first of its two round-robin tournaments against divisional opponents, the Crimson won by an average of 19.5 goals per match.

All of the matches were at MIT, and all the victims were Boston area schools.

Harvard began by thrashing Wellesley 26-2 on Saturday then beating MIT 19-6 later in the day. Harvard had beaten MIT earlier in the season, 21-8.

"We went into the weekend with high standards, and I was actually quite disappointed with our game against MIT," Harvard Coach Sachi Gahan'93-94 said. "We came out flat, but we really turned it around the next day and just dominated."

Yesterday, Harvard beat B.U. 21-3 in the first game then beat up on B.C. 27-4.

"We had the best size, speed, ball skills, and goalie," Gahan said. "Sometimes, you can be lulled into playing down to the opponent, but there was none of that yesterday."

The dominating weekend makes quite a statement for the Crimson, which is not ranked in the Top 20 of the coaches' committee poll.

The only school in the region that is ranked is No. 6 UMass, which Harvard lost to 7-5 in a February scrimmage. In the fourth quarter of that match, the Crimson scored three unanswered goals.

"It's tough, because we don't get enough competition to impress people," said Gahan, who is one of the five coaches on the poll committee. "I think we're right behind UMass, maybe around No. 10 to 12 in the country."

It was hard to pick a most valuable player for Harvard this weekend because everyone scored--literally. Even junior Carine Williams, the backup goalie, was inserted into the field against B.U. so that she could score.

Nevertheless, some individuals stood out. Sophomore Natasha Magnuson and sophomore Jesse Gunderson both dominated. Magnuson scored 17 goals and had 15 assists for the weekend, while Gunderson scored 21 goals.

Freshman Dorothy Johnston made an impact as well. A high school All-American, Johnston was the freshman picked by the seniors to play every minute of every game this weekend. The "ironwoman" got stronger each game, according to Gahan, and her weekend climaxed in a seven-goal, six-assist, six-steal performance against B.C.

Despite the domination exhibited this weekend, Gahan said that Harvard's match with UMass on Mar. 26 is more important as a measuring stick.

Gahan, who was on the 1989 Harvard team that was the most successful in school history, said that this year's team is the most talented she has seen in her years of involvement with the program.

Although the 1989 team finished second at Easterns and fifth at Nationals, women's water polo has grown explosively since then.

"This team would easily beat that team," Gahan said.

That's a debate that will never be settled in the pool. But based on this weekend's results, there's not much doubt that the Crimson can easily beat its regional rivals.