Men's Water Polo Sweeps Weekend Contests

The Harvard men’s water polo team (12-4, 3-2 CWPA) dominated the pool this weekend, winning all five of its west-coast games over the course of three days. The team competed in the Gary Troyer Memorial Invitational on Friday and Saturday, then competed against Whittier College on Sunday.

Coming off of a split of last weekend’s games, head coach Ted Minnis made some adjustments to step this weekend’s play up to a new level. After ending the weekend on a low note last weekend with a loss to Brown, the team looked to improve its energy and stamina.

“The first change we did was I gave them an extra day off. That was a big thing this week,” Minnis said. “It was a really light week physically on them and I feel like that helped us. We really just talked up the X’s and O’s and what was needed for us to be better and not worrying about what others were doing.”

Minnis’ strategy definitely paid off, with the Crimson taking its first weekend sweep since the first weekend of the 2014 campaign in which Harvard had three victories during the preseason Princeton Invitational.

HARVARD 15, CONCORDIA 7

The Crimson was able to get off to a hot start in its first game on Friday, getting an early lead it did not relinquish. At halftime, Harvard was up by six goals, and the lead would only grow in the second half.

Sophomores Joey Colton and Viktor Wrobel and junior Ben Zepfel lead the offensive charge as trio scored 10 of the team’s 15 goals.

HARVARD 7, PAMONA-PITZER 3

All season, the Crimson has been focused on improving defense, and that showed in the game against Pamona-Pitzer on Friday afternoon, as defense was key to victory against the Sagehens. Leading the charge was junior goalie Colin Woolway, who maintained a shutout throughout the entire second half.

We were really on top of working together as a unit on defense and not letting them get any easy goals,” co-captain Max Murphy said. “Very rarely [all weekend] did any team actually score in a 6 on 6. The only times they would score was when we got ejected, which is something we were trying to work on.”

HARVARD 14, CAL-LUTHERAN 9

Continuing the strong offensive trend, the Crimson once again led from start to finish with the trio of Zepfel, Colton, and Wrobel attacking the goal, scoring eight of the team’s 14 goals.

The defensive unit kept the shots on Woolway limited, as Harvard recorded 14 steals in the match.

HARVARD 12, REDLANDS 10

The Crimson’s final game of the Gary Troyer Memorial Invitational was a much harder fight, with the Redlands staying close the entire game. The contest was neck and neck up until the fourth quarter.Going into the final frame, Harvard held a slim one-goal lead. The victory was up for grabs until the very end, as the two teams combined for seven goals in the final quarter.

HARVARD 11, WHITTIER 10

The Crimson offense came out strong, putting up a three goal advantage early in the first quarter, while the defense kept the Whittier offense at bay.

The defense struggled more so when it was a man down, as ejections allowed the Poets to forge a comeback. However, Harvard were able to maintain a four goal lead for most of the game when it was at full strength.

“It got a little chippy towards to end,” co-captain Max Murphy said. “They are a really talented team, really good west coast team and they were not happy losing in their own pool so they put up a fight in the fourth quarter.”

The team returns to division play next weekend as they face Brown and Connecticut College. The Crimson lost to the Bears last time the two teams met, with a final score of 13-8.

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.