Men's Water Polo Tops Brown in Grudge Match

In their third matchup of the season Friday night, the Harvard men’s water polo team (9-8, 7-1 CWPA Northern) put Brown (12-9, 5-1 CWPA Northern) back on its heels in Providence, R.I.

The Crimson looked to continue its five-game win streak coming off of a 16-5 win over Connecticut College, and accomplished its goal with a 12-10 victory against the Bears.

Sophomore Noah Harrison, freshman Joey Colton, and sophomore Ben Zepfel led Harvard with a hat-trick each, and Harrison and Colton both added 3 assists. Colton came away from the game with 2 steals as well.

The teams came into the game evenly matched, each having lost once and won once against each other.  In the most recent contest, the Crimson beat Brown, 6-5.

But Harvard was not about to let its most recent win over the Bears get to its head.

“We have to respect them regardless of the results of the past few times we played them,” Harrison said.

By halftime, Brown and the Crimson were tied at three.

“We stuck to our game plan,” Harrison said,  “But they put up a hell of a fight.”

The third quarter turned out to be the deciding factor.  Harvard exploded in an exciting show of offensive power, netting five goals.

“That’s when the offense really opened up,” Harrison said.  “We really started to get into our groove.”

Sophomore goalie Colin Woolway attributes some of the goals to players on the perimeter.

“We had drives through the middle of the pool,” Woolway said.  “We were able to open up space for our shooters on the outside.”

He also gives the centers credit for helping create offense.

“Ben Zepfel and John Holland-McCowan are really good at holding space,” Woolway said.  “Brown was dropping in on them a bit, but it opened up opportunities for our players to drive through and be wide-open for a goal.”

But the defensive line’s performance is not to be overlooked.

“Our defense was really solid,” Woolway said.  “We pressed really hard and tried to make it difficult for them to move the ball around and make it difficult for them to get into the flow of their offense.  That was probably the main thing.”

In the fourth quarter, both the Bears and the Crimson scored four times; Brown tied up the game for the second time, making the score 8-8.

“They had a big crowd there, and the crowd helped them get back into it,” Woolway said.  “They were able to score one goal very early on in the fourth quarter, and then they scored another one [to tie it up].”

Woolway described the scenario as similar to the one that occurred the last time Harvard played Brown in its pool: “We were up two going into the fourth quarter, and then their crowd got really into it and they ended up scoring a couple of goals and beating us [in the prior match].”

But the Crimson emerged on top due to the two goals it was able to put in the cage during the intense third quarter.

“[The match] was a lot of exchanging goals,” Woolway said.  “They kept fighting the whole game.  We went up on them, but they kept clawing their way back.”

Harvard, although never on the losing side, was never ahead in the game by three goals.

“Our coach was describing them as wounded animal (having come off of a few hard losses recently),” Harrison said.  “We have to really respect them, because they’re going to come out and leave everything in the pool, and they did that.  My hats go off to them; they’re a really good team.”

The Crimson, however, was able to collect itself and restore dominance in the last quarter.

“Viktor Wrobel had the goal that I would say sealed the game.  We were up 11-10 with a minute left.  We had a 6-on-5,” Woolway said.  "[Wrobel] was on the left side and was able to score.”

Three other Harvard players also added goals to assure the Crimson the win.

Harvard will travel across town this Wednesday, Oct. 16, to play MIT in what promises to be another competitive contest. The Crimson already beat the Engineers, 13-10, on Sept. 29.

“MIT is another team we also have to respect,” Harrison said. “I think we can beat them, but we have to come in mentally prepared and focused and ready to give it our all.”