Navy Sinks Aquadudes at Tourney, 12-6

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The outlook before Sunday morning's Navy game was not encouraging.

The Harvard men's water polo team had played poorly in Saturday losses to Iona and Bucknell at the Brown Invitational--and was faced with the daunting prospect of catching an 8 a.m. bus to Providence for the match against the nationally 11th ranked Cadets.

This was the same Navy team which destroyed the Crimson, 26-2, last year, which had beaten ninth-ranked Brown Saturday night, and which the Harvard players agreed was the most improved team in the east.

To make matters worse, most team members had attended the 350th Ball the night before. As Kyle Enright predicted before the game, "We'll probably be experiencing some post formal difficulties."

No, the Crimson was not able to pull out a heroic last-minute victory in the face of incredible adversity--it lost, 12-6. Nonetheless, the aquadudes played an excellent second half and regained some of the confidence they had lost the day before.

After falling behind, 7-1, by the end of the second quarter, the Crimson played Navy to a 5-5 stand-off the rest of the way--and punctuated the "comeback" by successfully defending against a rare 6-on-4 Cadet power play at the end of the game.

Offensive Revival

The Harvard offense improved noticeably during the second half. After getting off five shots on goal in the first quarter, and only one in the second, the Crimson managed to shoot 13 times in the second half.

Harvard took more time Sunday to set up its offense, to pass the ball around and to look for the open man.

The offensive attack had been weak throughout Saturday's 8-3 and 9-3 defeats. One of the reasons, according to Tri-Captain Fred Scherrer, was that the team "doesn't have a leading scorer, someone who can put the ball in the net."

Another problem, Scherrer said, was that the more experienced players "still have to figure out the freshmen and relate them to the [veterans]. We'll have to spend the next three weeks [before the New England Championships] doing that."