Men's Water Polo Journeys West, Wins Three of Five Against Top Competition

Less than a week after a third place showing at the Ivy League Championships, the Harvard men’s water polo team headed west and produced three wins against Californian competitors at Santa Clara University’s Rodeo Tournament.

CONCORDIA 9, HARVARD 8

On Friday evening, the Crimson – ranked No. 19 in the nation – competed in the first of its five scheduled matches against No. 10 Concordia.

The Eagles, coming off of a 14-10 victory against Pomona-Pitzer two days prior, knocked in three goals in the first quarter. Harvard matched Concordia’s first quarter performance with three goals of its own, but was only able to score once in the second as opposed to the Eagles’ two.

The contest remained close throughout the second half. Both Concordia and the Crimson produced four points overall, with Harvard surging in the fourth period, scoring three goals as opposed to Concordia’s one. The late comeback, however, was unable to erase the deficit the Crimson found itself in at the end of the third quarter—after a final shot from freshman Joey Colton with 29 seconds left, the Crimson was forced to settle with a 9-8 loss.

SANTA CLARA 12, HARVARD 9

The next morning began with the Crimson facing No. 16 Santa Clara. Three ranks above Harvard, the team hosting the tournament proved to be more of a challenge than the opposition from Friday night.

In the opening minutes, Santa Clara managed to pull away by two, but two shots by freshman attacker Viktor Wrobel brought the Crimson within a point of the Broncos. An additional goal from Colton helped the cause, and the first quarter ended with Harvard trailing, 4-3.

The second and third quarters were repeats of the first—with each effort mounted by Harvard, Santa Clara managed to edge its opponent by a single point. The end of the first half saw the Broncos pulling away, 7-5. By the end of the third, the scoreboard read 11-8.

Sophomore Noah Harrison scored a goal in the opening minutes of the final frame, but the lone goal was matched by one from Santa Clara’s James Rude. Shortly thereafter, Harvard’s second match out West ended with a 12-9 loss.

HARVARD 11, CAL BAPTIST 10

After two unsuccessful contests against higher-ranked teams, Harvard reversed the losing streak against No. 17 Cal Baptist. With Colton and sophomore Ben Zepfel tallying the first three goals, the Crimson started strong and ran with the lead.

“Well, I think that we all looked at each other in the eye and realized that we had more to give at the pool,” Junior John Holland-McCowan said. “We can come together.”

The beginning of the second half was when Harvard really took off. Four different members of the Crimson – Zepfel, Colton, Harrison and freshman Dan Stevens – scored in the third quarter, with Zepfel notching two. The four-point lead was sufficient to ward off a late comeback by Cal Baptist, and a goal by Harrison in the final minutes secured Harvard’s first victory of the weekend, 11-10.

HARVARD 14, UC DAVIS 11

The final day of competition in California opened with the Crimson facing No. 11 UC Davis. Apart from Concordia, the Aggies were the highest-ranked ranked team to participate in the Rodeo Tournament.

In contrast to the match-up against Cal Baptist, in which Harvard opened with a lead and held it throughout, the Crimson spent the majority of the game either behind or tied with its opponents, excepting a few minutes in the first half. It wasn’t until the beginning of the second period that it pulled up to the performance of the Aggies.

But once Zepfel scored the first goal for Harvard in the opening moments of the third quarter, the competition was neck-to-neck. Every point scored by either Harvard or Davis was met with a score from the opposing team, and the two sides were tied four different times in that quarter alone. At the beginning of the fourth, the score was notched at 10.

In the end, Harrison and Colton produced. Scoring two goals apiece, Harrison and Colton helped the Crimson pull away while Aggie sophomore Philip Bates scored the lone goal for the opposing side. The game finished with Harvard on top, 14-11.

“One thing…is that we should play with anyone,” Harrison said. “And when we went out there to play that game, we went out with that mindset. We didn’t let them battle us and we continued to fight back to accomplish the victory in that game because we never gave up.”

The upset victory against Davis saw a balanced performance from the Harvard squad. A total of seven members from the Crimson managed to score, with Harrison leading the way with four points.

HARVARD 7, FRESNO PACIFIC 6

Four hours after the victory against UC Davis, the Crimson fashioned a solid first-half performance to secure its final victory before returning to the East Coast.

After scoring first, Harvard ran away to a halftime score of 5-1. Only two additional points by Zepfel and Colton in the third frame were needed to fend off a late surge by Fresno Pacific.

“We competed at a very high level,” McCowan said. “We left 3-2, and that was something Harvard [hadn’t been able to] say for a long time. We’re really proud [of] that.”