M. Water Polo Wins Two of Three on the Road

The No. 18 Harvard men’s water polo team entered this weekend looking to solidify a place in the upper echelon of the Northern Division after an impressive 5-0 showing last weekend at the Claremont Invitational.

The Crimson came away with two key victories on a three-game road trip this weekend, defeating No. 13 Queens College on Saturday and Iona College on Sunday afternoon. Harvard’s sole loss came at the hands of Brown in Providence on Saturday.

Harvard 10, Queens College 8

On Saturday afternoon, the Crimson traveled to Providence to take on No. 13 Queens College, which had been undefeated in Northern Division play. Queens quickly rebounded from two early Harvard goals to tie the score, and the game remained close through the third quarter. Two counterattack goals by the Knights early in the fourth, though, put them up 8-6 and forced the Crimson to call a timeout. With five minutes remaining, junior Theo Ludwick, aware that the Knight goalie had been cheating to one side all game, faked to that side and then slid the ball into the other side of the cage, igniting a 4-0 Harvard run.

That was all the Crimson would need. Co-captain Gresham Bayne, the reigning Collegiate Water Polo Association Player of the Week, who had earlier kept the Crimson in the game with several key saves on breakaways, shut Queens down for the rest of the contest, securing the 10-8 victory. Harvard could not have been happier with the result.

“Our performance against Queens definitely shows us that we can beat anybody in the East, which is what we need to do to be the Eastern

representative at NCAAs, which is what our goal has been for the entire season,” said junior Mike Masterson. “It just brings us one step closer to that goal.”

Brown 10, Harvard 8

The win against Queens further boosted Harvard’s confidence before its match against host Brown. While the Crimson expected to defeat the Bears, it knew it had to play well.

“Brown has always played us hard in the past,” Ludwick said. “For some reason they always pick up their intensity when they play us.”

“Even though it was in their house, we wanted to come out quickly and put them away,” added sophomore Will Garrigues.

Indeed, Harvard took an early 3-0 lead, but Brown soon whittled the advantage to a single goal. The Crimson, though, staked itself to a 6-3

advantage at halftime and hoped for smooth sailing. It was not to be, however, as Harvard lost focus and allowed the slower Brown team to counterattack and tie the score early in the third.

Throughout the game, Brown had been dropping off two Crimson players defensively but, late in the contest, Harvard suddenly found itself unable to convert the resulting open shots. That, coupled with some questionable calls by the officials and a boisterous home crowd, ultimately

snowballed into a 10-8 defeat for the Crimson.

Harvard 12, Iona 6

Sunday morning, after spending the night in Providence, Harvard drove to New Rochelle, New York, to face Iona in its shallow pool, which allows the players to jump off the bottom of the pool illegally. It was difficult for the Harvard players to know how often and when to use the depth of the pool to their benefit, but the home Gaels took full advantage.

“[The bottom of the pool] was a source of frustration for our two-meter game,” Garrigues said.

Nonetheless, despite an early Iona goal, the Crimson shot well and led 2-1 after the first quarter and 4-3 at halftime. Then, on the first play of

the second half, Harvard, with textbook execution, broke through the defense that both Brown and the Gaels employed as Masterson scored, giving the Crimson the emotional lift it needed to cruise to a dominating 12-6 victory.

This week, Harvard will get the opportunity to play against some of its chief rivals, as it travels to the University of Massachusetts on Wednesday in an attempt to avenge two narrow losses. The game will present an extra challenge for the Crimson, as it will be played in a small pool that will benefit the more physical Minutemen. Then, this weekend, Harvard hosts the ECAC Championships, giving it a chance to see some Southern Division teams in action. The real test for the Crimson, though, comes the next weekend with the Northern Division Championships at Brown, where the Crimson will need to place in the top four teams to qualify for Easterns. The team, however, isn’t worried.

“We fully expect to go to Easterns,” Garrigues said.