Men's Water Polo Wins Two of Three Final Conference Games

The clock was winding down, with less than two minutes remaining in the game. The Harvard men’s water polo team had possession with an extra-man advantage in a tie game. Co-captain Max Murphy received a cross pass from junior attacker Blake Lee, fired a shot before the shot clock ran out, and got the ball past St. Francis goalie Aleksandar Gavric.

Murphy’s first goal of the game gave his team the late and narrow lead that would allow the Crimson to take the game to overtime.

Though the team would ultimately fall to St. Francis, Harvard (19-7, 7-4 CWPA) had many more scoring moments like these during their conference games in New York against St. Francis, Fordham, and Iona, taking two of three.

“We played with heart and hustle for each and every minute of all three games, never giving up easy goals and executing our offensive game-plan with confidence and poise,” Murphy said.

HARVARD 11, FORDHAM 7

The Crimson bounced back from its loss against St. Francis to defeat Fordham (13-15, 4-8), 11-7. The team brought its defensive skills to the Bronx, where it snapped the Rams’ two-game winning streak on Sunday.

Harvard dominated the entire game, scoring most of its goals in the first half. Lee led the offense with five goals, four of which occurred in a span of less than 20 minutes. Freshman utility Colin Chiapello added three goals in the final minutes of the game to secure the win.

“I am proud of this team, and especially our younger players, for stepping up in the face of adversity,” said Murphy. “We have been mired with injuries for the entire season...but even with few substitutes we were able to achieve success.”

HARVARD 11, IONA 9

The Crimson rounded off its regular season with an 11-9 win against Iona (6-16, 5-7). Both teams entered the game coming off a win, and it was a close contest from the start.

Lee again had a productive first half, contributing three goals that kept Harvard in the game as the two teams traded leads constantly. The half ended with each team scoring six goals apiece.

Defense played a bigger role going into the third quarter, with both teams scoring only two goals each. Murphy stepped up once again in the final minutes of his last regular season game for the Crimson, leading his team to a win.

“We've been pretty focused on the defensive end, and I was happy to see it pay off,” junior goalie Colin Woolway said. “We really wanted to win that game since the game at Iona was our only regular season loss last year, and it was nice to avenge that loss.”

ST. FRANCIS 19, HARVARD 16

The Crimson fell to the Terriers (11-9, 9-1) by a score of 19-16 on Saturday in Brooklyn. The first game of the team’s road trip was an evenly matched one, with both teams’ defense playing important roles. St. Francis took an early lead—scoring 4 and conceding only 2 goals in the first eight minutes—and held on to the advantage for the first half of the game.

Lee and sophomore 2-meter defender Dan Stevens led the attack in the third quarter, giving Harvard its first lead of the game, which it was able to maintain going into the fourth quarter.

Late in the fourth quarter, Murphy put the Crimson up by one, but a foul resulting in a man advantage for its opponent allowed the Terriers to tie the game and send it into overtime.

Harvard took the early lead in overtime, but was unable to answer four goals put up by St. Francis.

Following the two wins, the team looks next to the CWPA Northern Championship at MIT on November 8 and the CWPA Eastern Championship on November 21.

“We will be seeing some of the same conference rivals we've been playing all year,” added Murphy.” “We know how to beat each team and we know that we can. Our focus for the next few weeks will be to maintain intensity for every defensive possession and to stay healthy.”