Men's Water Polo Edged by Brown for Northern Championship

It may not have come out on top at the end of the day, but the Harvard men’s water polo team had a lot to be pleased with this weekend.

Despite losing to Brown in the championship game of the CWPA Northern Championships, the Crimson (21-8, 7-4 CWPA) put up a strong fight, defeating longtime rival St. Francis and cross-town foe MIT Saturday afternoon. Harvard entered the championship tournament as the No. 6-seed amongst the seven teams in the CWPA Northern Division.

“Obviously we would have liked to have won the championship game today,” junior goalie Colin Woolway said. “But I think overall we are happy with where we are at and are pretty confident going into Easterns in a few weeks.”

BROWN 9, HARVARD 6

An early scoring frenzy put Harvard in the hole early, falling behind 6-1 in the first half. Despite a strong second half, it wasn’t enough to forge a full comeback and defeat No. 11 Brown (24-6,11-1).

Following four straight goals by the Bears, Lee was finally able to put one away for the Crimson, but it would be the only goal Harvard scored in the first two frames.

But the team was able to turn things around in the second half, outscoring Brown, 5-3, in the final two quarters. Lee sparked the Crimson’s scoring with a goal early in the third, and sophomore Joey Colton and senior co-captain Max Murphy added to the Harvard’s total to cut the lead to three.

Because of its strong performance at the Northern Championships, the Crimson will compete as the No. 3 seed at the CWPA Eastern Championships in two weeks.

“Our main goal this year, and for the past three years I’ve been on the team has been to win this championship,” co-captain Max Murphy said. “The winner of the Eastern Championship goes on to the NCAA Championships in California, so that’s something that we’ve definitely been striving for and setting our eyes on this year.”

HARVARD 11, ST. FRANCIS 10

All season long, the Crimson has battled with St. Francis (14-11,10-2), but up until this weekend Harvard had been unsuccessful at upending the Terriers. However, in its second consecutive overtime contest, the Crimson was finally able to finish off St. Francis by a slim one-goal margin in order to move on to the championship game.

The game started off similar to many for Harvard this season, with the Crimson trailing in the first half, 5-2. It was able, however, to inch back in the second half. After tying the score at five early in the third quarter, the game went back and forth as Harvard and the Terriers traded goals in the fourth until the Crimson sent the game into overtime with a goal with 2:55 left in the fourth quarter.

Harvard took a quick lead in the overtime period, giving it an 11-9 lead that St. Francis could not overcome.

“We felt like we should have won the last game too that we lost in overtime at their place,” goalie Colin Woolway said. “Stuff like that just comes down to the wire and one moment can decide the outcome of the game. We put ourselves in a position to win the game and that was enough.”

HARVARD 14, MIT 8

In its quarterfinal game of the tournament, Harvard took the lead early and held on throughout the contest to beat the Engineers (14-15, 4-8). Offense has been a strength for the Crimson all season, with a record of 18-4 in games when the team scored 10 or more goals, and that held true again on Saturday.

Junior Blake Lee continued his goal scoring attack, leading the team with five goals. Lee has consistently been a strong offensive force for the team all season.

Woolway held resilient against a tough MIT offense led by junior Ory Tasman, keeping the Engineers scoreless in the final quarter to secure the victory.

This week’s win was the third time Harvard has defeated MIT this season.

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