Visiting Crimson Defeats Ivy Rival

The Harvard women’s water polo team stormed back in the third period to take a lead that it would not relinquish as it earned a win over Brown, 16-12.

The Crimson (16-13, 2-2 Collegiate Water Polo Association) beat the Bears (10-15, 1-3), at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass on Wednesday.

“I thought we played really well,” Harvard coach Ted Minnis said. “I definitely was concerned coming in because it was the third time we played them this season. It was the only home game they had this year, and it was senior night for them. We had a big hill to climb on this one so it was a big game for us. It’s Brown and that’s a big rivalry game for us. It was a fun game.”

The Crimson won all three of its matches against Brown this season, handily beating the Bears, 15-5, on Feb 23 and 9-5 at the ECAC Championship on Feb 26.

Emotions ran high for Brown which showed in its inspired first quarter play.

“I think they just gave out ready came out really ready to play,” Aisha Price said. “It was their senior night and there only home game so they had a lot of fans and they brought a lot of that energy into the pool.”

The Bears typically struggle in the first quarter, having been outscored 80-53 in over the course of the season.

But that changed as Brown leading soccer freshman Kate Woods scored the first goal of the game at the 4:58 mark in first.

Crimson junior Lizzie Abbott would even the score with twenty seconds later.

Both teams then traded goals, making the score 2-2 with 2:41 left in the quarter.

The Bears went on a three goal run lead by sophomores Brittany Westerman and Katharine Booher who scored two and one goal respectively.

The run put Brown up, 5-2, with 13 seconds left in the quarter.

A quick Harvard strike cut the lead to 5-3 at the end of the quarter.

In the second quarter the Crimson stepped up their defense and shut out the Bears in the beginning of the period while scoring two goals, tying the score at five.

Brown finally broke through at the 2:23 mark when Booher scored one of her five goals of the game.

The teams proceeded to trade goals once again, making the score 7-6.

A late steal by Bears freshman Sarah Presant lead to a score with seven seconds remaining in the half an gave Brown the momentum ended into halftime.

To open the second half Brown extended the lead off another Booher goal giving the Bears a 9-6.

Harvard responded in a big way by charging back with seven unanswered goals to turn a three goal deficit into a four goal lead.

The streak was lead by the scoring of Crimson duo sophomore Aisha Price and junior Monica Zdrojewski.

“I think Monica played really well and she brought a lot of energy out and put a lot of goals away that we needed to go,” A. Price said. “She had a couple of breakaways that she finished that were huge and gave us momentum.”

Price equally stepped up in the run.

“[A. Price] had a nice run in the third quarter where in a minute and a half or two minutes she scored three goals,” Minnis said. “I think she had a huge game.”

Brown tried to come back in the fourth by scoring the first two goals of the period but three connective Harvard goals pushed the lead to 16-11, a lead from which the Bears could not recover.

“I think for us is once we get the ball rolling in terms of putting points on the board we can just kinda take off.” freshman Shayna Price said.

Booher netted her fifth goal of the game with 1:11 remaining to push the final score to 16-12.

“I thought it was a good win,” A. Price said. “Brown came out with a lot of energy and put up a fight at the beginning of the game. They controlled the game and we were down, but later in the game we were able to switch that momentum and use it to our advantage. We took over the flow of the game and were able to execute.”