Female Rookie of the Year Runner-Up: Kristen Hong

In her first ever game with the Harvard women’s water polo team, freshman attacker Kristen Hong made her presence known early—and often.

Within two minutes, Hong scored the very first goal of the Crimson’s 2016 season off a rebound in front of the net. The rookie then went on to tally four more, finishing with five scores, an assist, and two steals in the season opener against Villanova.

If such a stat line was unsustainable, no one told Hong.

Hong’s entire freshman season shaped up to be a macrocosm of her first collegiate performance. Without skipping a beat, the rookie punched in a program-record-tying 80 goals and 35 assists. She also racked up 45 steals, enough to lead the team.

“She did a good job of coming in and figuring out what this team needed her to do,” coach Ted Minnis said. “She snuck up early on, on people—they didn’t realize how good she was. As she started getting on those scouting reports, she continued to produce.”

Her season included a team-high 21 multi-goal efforts, including 11 games with four or more strikes. This production reached a high point with a six-goal performance on March 17 against Villanova.

Given the numbers she put up, the Crimson’s young attacker will almost certainly be a mainstay on future scouting reports of opposing teams. Minnis gave praise to Hong’s character as a building block for continued growth.

“We had a very experienced roster coming back, and she took advantage of her opportunities,” Minnis said. “I think that just shows the kind of kid she is and how hard she worked throughout the year.”

For her efforts, Hong was named the team’s Rookie of the Year at the year-end banquet and collected a program-record five CWPA Division I/II Rookie of the Week honors. The recognition came as part of a record-breaking season for the Harvard team, as it posted a 24-10 record—the most wins in a program history—and its highest-ever CWPA ranking at No. 13.

While Hong put up big numbers, the season was hardly a perfect ride. Looking back, the freshman remembered moments of jitters and self-doubt especially in the minutes leading up to the opening sprint on the morning of January 30. That day, Hong put on a Crimson jersey for the first time.

“I just remembered I’d been very nervous,” Hong said. “I was like, ‘How good is Villanova? What’s going to happen there?’ One of my teammates was saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, you got it, we’re all going to do great.’”

Another aspect of the game that Hong had to contend with was the transition from high school to Harvard. The freshman graduated from Miramonte High School, a school in Northern California in an area that has sent several Olympians to play water polo for the country. Hong also captained the school’s water polo team during her senior year.

Still, even with all her previous experience, nothing can compare to playing the sport on a collegiate level.

“[Coach Minnis] was able to help me see the game in a different way and adjust to college water polo,” Hong said. “A big part of the transition was the speed of the game. The game was a lot faster in terms of practice and what’s happening... . You have to read situations and read the plays a lot of faster.”

Most importantly, the season provided a load of wear-and-tear on the entire team. Since it traveled to Italy over the winter break to train, the team was tasked with pushing through a season that was essentially a month longer than normal.

Running from late January to early May, the schedule is plenty long already, and that extended itinerary presented a mental challenge for rookies such as Hong.

“The season was just really long, and it was really hard to adjust to,” Hong said. “Everyone was getting burnt out by the middle and end of the season. It was just pushing through that wall in order to keep going.”

At the end of the day, however, the hardships proved to be just another obstacle that Hong was able to hurdle on her way to a record-breaking freshman season. Given the way this season turned out, and the way the program as a whole has risen, her next three years with the Crimson may just promise an even bigger splash than 2016.

—Staff writer Bryan Hu can be reached at bhu01@college.harvard.edu.