W. Water Polo Crushes Connecticut Camels

Last year, the Crimson swept Connecticut College in a landslide 17-2 victory.

Last night, the Harvard powerhouse (8-3) was in action again as the Camels (2-6) fell 15-3 to the Crimson at Blodgett Pool last night.

Harvard swept the first quarter by beginning with a five point lead, ending the first period with six points to Connecticut College’s one.

Two of the six goals in the first quarter came from senior driver Christina Codini, who scored in the back half of the period to raise Harvard to an unmatched four point lead. Finishing out the quarter with one second remaining on the clock was freshman utility Stefanie Wilson, whose tally lifted the Crimson to its five-point advantage.

Within the first three minutes of the second frame, Harvard once again took a commanding lead. The momentum from the first period carried over as the Crimson managed to score an additional two points in the quarter’s back half.

A noteworthy performance came from freshman driver Vivian Liao as she tallied two of the total three goals scored in the quarter, advancing the Harvard lead to 9-2 at intermission.

An early goal at 6:12 by junior driver Sarah Kennifer, her second goal of the game, started the third quarter in similar fashion. Shortly thereafter at 5:02 the Crimson rotated in a new lineup.

The change did not offset the team’s successful momentum, however, as Harvard continued to dominate, only surrendering one goal. And thanks to freshmen Lauren Snyder and Nina Kouyoumdjian, the Crimson finished the quarter with an ever-growing nine point lead.

The gap only widened as Harvard added to the three-points-per-quarter trend, ending the game with a 12-point margin of victory.

“Connecticut College has some good players and they took some quality shots,” head coach Eric Farrar said. “But in general, we were faster we were able to keep it in the open court.”

Junior Claire Lukeman replaced junior Lydia Gardner in goal during the final quarter, where she successfully stopped all comers. Senior driver Diane Dewey tied up the game as her shot passed the Camel netminder with 14 seconds remaining on the clock.

Freshman driver Nina Kouyoumdjian also snuck in a goal in the final seconds of the fourth, ending her night with three goals, a game-high.

“I got a lot of good passes from my teammates, which allowed me to get good shots off my drives,” Kouyoumdjian said. “It was nice to stick all the pieces together in a game.”

While the fifteen goals heavily outweighed the small three goals that escaped goal keeper Lydia Gardner, she notes that the team never takes any game as a given.

“We go into every game we play seriously. We don’t ever look past any teams,” Gardner said.

The team’s victory against Connecticut College is only the beginning to a long streak of upcoming competition. Within the next 10 days, the team will travel to California where it will play a total of eight games.

“It’s a good opener to a long week,” Gardner said. “The game served as a final opportunity to see if we have our stuff together and work on last minute details.”

Farrar notes that while the team is right where they need to be at this point in the season, beating the highly competitive teams they will face in California will be a challenge.

“The teams we will compete against counterattack very well and they are fast. They are strong teams, but we’re certainly capable of beating them,” Farrar said. “They are going to require us to play well.”

Harvard’s next game begins this Saturday when they head west to face Whittier.