Women's Water Polo Misses Weekend Sweep

Nineteen goals.

Even in water polo, that marks a truly powerful offensive feat.

The Harvard women’s water polo wasn’t satiated with just 19 goals, however.

After defeating Queens College 19-4 Saturday morning, it repeated the tremendous offensive output and held Utica scoreless later that afternoon, tallying a whopping 38 goals, while giving up just four, in just one day.

Unfortunately, it couldn’t translate its spark into the next day, dropping a match to Hartwick, the top team in the division, 11-3, making the Crimson’s record 7-3.

Harvard knew it would be fighting an uphill battle against the most talented team in the Northern Division.

It watched the Hawks pummel Brown 18-8 the day before, and though the Crimson was coming off a prolific two-game win streak, it could not muster the offensive strength needed to top Hartwick.

The Hawks held Harvard scoreless for the entire first half of play, while notching five goals of its own.

Junior goaltender Lydia Gardner, who managed to give up only four goals in eight periods of play the day before, was unable to stop Hartwick from cementing an early lead over the Crimson.

Gardner was at a particular disadvantage because of the nature of the pool. Normally, players must tread for the entire game.

However, Hartwick compensates for the shallowness of its pool by enlarging the size of the goal, something Gardner doesn’t normally have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

“It is hard to play in an environment that you are not used to playing in day in and day out,” explained junior Molly Mehaffey, who is also a Crimson editor.

“Overall I think we adjusted well to the pool’s dynamics. Lydia made a great effort to adjust to defending a cage in shallow water,” Mehaffey said.

Though the team knew it would be unable to defeat Hartwick as the game wore on, it continued to play hard until the final minutes.

As the end approached, the Crimson adjusted to playing situation, finally netting goals.

“We played more intensely in the fourth quarter, when Hartwick had an insurmountable lead, then at any other time in the game,” co-captain Teresa Codini said.

Codini also mentioned that the Crimson will be better prepared to thwart Hartwick’s strongest offensive player, Bronwen Knox, who netted seven goals.

Though Harvard was unable to topple the Hawks this time, it will see Hartwick again in the Northern Division Championships.

Getting a chance to see the Hawks in play can only help the Crimson’s chances of improving, so Sunday’s loss is of little consequence.

“I think you need to see a team that has worked on the intricate aspects of offenses in order to fully understand how those aspects should materialize in your own playing,” Mehaffey said.

“I definitely learned a lot this weekend, and I think it will show in our future games,” she said.

In both of its games on Saturday, the Crimson was able to use its huge lead to experiment with different plays.

“We were able to work on some specific game-time defenses and offenses that we don’t usually get to focus on,” Mehaffey said. “But due to the score, we had the ability to focus on certain aspects, such as man-down defense and running picks on offense.”

The less experienced players on the team were also given more playing time, giving Harvard an opportunity to test the depth and skill of its bench.

“Since both Queens and Utica are fairly new programs, all 17 players had an opportunity to take on an important role in the games,” Codini said. “Several players scored their first goal of the season.”

The Crimson has a three week hiatus until the ECACs.

It will use that opportunity to fine-tune its game.

Before the end-of-the-season tournaments begin, the team will compete in the water polo Mecca that is the state of California over spring break. That’s where it will play No. 2 USC.

—Staff writer Megha Parekh can be reached at parekh@fas.harvard.edu..