Injured W. Water Polo Struggles to Survive

The question is not if, but when, the women's water polo team opened an umbrella indoors and walked under a ladder, tripping over a black cat and sprawling into a mirror, shattering it completely.

Throughout its season, Harvard was plagued by the loss of players from its already-small roster for a bevy of reasons, including MCATs, other sports, mononucleosis, strep throat, broken thumbs, and even facial lacerations requiring stitches.

"[Sometimes] we didn't even have enough people at practice to scrimmage," said junior goalie Danielle McCarthy.

As a result, the team struggled at times to compete with healthier squads.

"The score often didn't reflect how well we played," co-captain Jesse Gunderson said.

Last year, the Crimson graduated five seniors from a squad that went to Nationals and held its own against then-No. 1 Stanford. Matching that success became more difficult when women's water polo became an NCAA sport this year, meaning four schools, not 16, would earn berths at Nationals.

Harvard did enjoy a promising start to its season, defeating Brown 6-5 behind three Gunderson goals and an overall stifling defensive performance to improve its record to 5-0.

Only three days later, however, the Crimson lost a rematch with the Bears and things began to turn south. The team lost three of its next four to fall to 6-4 before leaving on a cross-country, spring-break road trip during which it played eight games in ten days.

The trip began at Connecticut College, where Harvard could not gain its first-ever win over Massachusetts, falling 6-5. Against the home team, though, the Crimson made sure it wasn't even close, with freshman Liz Anderson and sophomore driver Arianne Cohen combining for seven goals. Sophomore driver Kate Callaghan contributing six steals in the 10-2 rout.

Harvard then traveled west to beat UC-Santa Cruz 12-6 behind hat tricks from Gunderson, co-captain Natasha Magnuson, and junior Christine Meiers. The Crimson then thrashed Cal. St.-Hayward, 14-2.

Upon returning to the East, the Crimson competed in the ECAC Championships at Princeton. Despite three goals from sophomore Tiana Peterson, Harvard dropped its first game 10-5 to the host team. After a 13-7 win over Gannon, the Crimson succumbed to Brown, 6-3, before beating Hartwick 7-5.

The following weekend, Harvard hosted the CWPA Northern Division Championships, opening the tournament by riding five Gunderson tallies to a 7-5 win over Iona that qualified the Crimson for the Eastern Championships.

Harvard then fell to two of its perennial nemeses: Massachusetts in the semifinals, 10-7, and Brown in the third-place game, 7-5.

Two weeks later, the Crimson traveled to the Brown Invitational. There, Harvard again lost to Massachusetts, but rallied to defeat Iona and Dartmouth, with Gunderson earning the title of CWPA Women's Varsity Player of the Week.

The Crimson then joined one of the strongest fields in recent memory at the Eastern Championships, needing a third-place finish to earn a return trip to Nationals. But Harvard found itself so shorthanded that it had to ask former players junior Jill Ono and sophomore Jane Humphries to play. Despite their admirable contributions, the Crimson fell behind Princeton 4-0 after one quarter en route to dropping its first contest, 11-7. Against Indiana, Peterson scored her third, fourth, and fifth goals of the tournament, but an eight-tally second-quarter explosion from Indiana condemned Harvard to a 14-8 loss. In Harvard's final game of the season against George Washington, Humphries and second-team all-tournament honoree Magnuson each notched four goals in an 11-8 victory that gave the Crimson a seventh-place finish in the tourney.

Joining Magnuson as second-team all-tournament selections were Gunderson and McCarthy, while Meiers earned an honorable mention.

With the end of its season, the depleted Harvard team was left to wonder what might have been as it watched Brown, whom it defeated earlier in the year, take Easterns and the bid to Nationals.

"It was a disappointing end," McCarthy said, "but it was almost inevitable, given the physical shape we were in."

Sadly, the season's final game also marked the end of the collegiate careers of great teammates and friends Gunderson and Magnuson. The two, both of Scandinavian descent, have been called the Bobbsey Twins for their closeness in and out of the water.

"I'll definitely miss being able to play with her," said Magnuson. "We had an odd bond that I've never had before and everyone seemed to notice."

Gunderson echoed those sentiments.

"I couldn't have asked for anyone better to be my partner for these four years, so it's definitely very sad to be ending our careers," she said "Together, we've been able to do more than twice what we could have done as individuals."

Clearly, one of the prominent challenges for the returning players is coping with the loss of two players who were both named to the All-Conference Northern Division squad-Gunderson as a first-teamer and Magnuson with the second unit.

"They really held the team together this year and motivated us to keep going," Anderson said.

In fact, Gunderson and Magnuson shared Most Inspirational honors, while the team voted Gunderson MVP and sophomore Leah Kaminski Rookie of the Year.

Next year, Anderson appears poised to move into Gunderson's primary slot, but the team will be looking to a strong recruiting class to replace the left-handed Magnuson.

McCarthy and Meiers will serve as co-captains, and Gunderson is confident they are well suited to the role.

"They're both perfect for the job. They're both very driven, very responsible, very organized, and very self-motivated. They lead by example and are hard workers, which motivates and inspires the team," she said.

Also key to the Crimson's chances next year will be the return of Ono and Humphries and the continued maturation of Peterson.

However, if Harvard can't find a four-leaf clover to change its luck, the players know all too well that they will again be fighting an uphill battle.