Aquadudes Triple-Dunked at Polo Easterns

Some critics would look at the Harvard water polo team's eighth-place finish in this weekend's Eastern Championships and insist that the Crimson played as well as could be expected.

After all, Harvard--which closed the season at 13-22--was seeded last going into the Annapolis, Md. tournament and hadn't beaten any of the seven other teams in 10 tries this year.

But the Crimson didn't see it that way.

As Tri-Captain Fred Scherrer put it, "We didn't do too well. We lost as many games as we could possibly lose."

The three losses in three games included a 21-0 humiliation at the hands of a ferocious Navy squad, an embarrassing 8-2 thrashing by Richmond, and a disappointing 13-7 defeat in a meaningless game to Washington & Lee.

The Richmond contest particularly galled the Crimson, which had dreams of winning that match and possibly earning a national ranking as a result.

"We went into the game real positively," Scherrer said. "We were going to swim them to death."

The match started off well for the Crimson, as Scherrer scored a goal during the first minute of action. And by the end of the first quarter, Harvard was behind by a not-insurmountable 3-1 tally.

But then the monster that has plagued the Crimson all year--an ineffective scoring attack--struck again.

"Our offense just would not produce any goals," Scherrer said. "And a series of turnovers really hurt us. We had them tired, but they got in a bunch of junk goals."

Harvard had hoped that its offensive difficulties were behind it. During the last two weeks, at the Ivy League and then the New England Championships, "everything clicked," Wade Stokes said. "Our set offense had worked to a T, but it just disappeared on us this weekend.

"You should be able to win a game if your goalie only gives up eight points," the junior continued, referring to Crimson netminder Don Benson's performance in the Richmond contest.

The Navy game, on the other hand, seemed hopeless from the start. Although the Crimson lost this season's previous meeting with the Cadets by a respectable 12-6 score, both squads sensed that Harvard wouldn't escape so easily this time around.

"They have an amazing 12 players," Scherrer said. "They can put fresh guys in" whenever the first team gets tired.

On top of their physical advantages, the Cadets had the home field advantage. Perhaps they were able to sleep through the sounds of budding U.S. soldiers running past their dorms at 4:45 a.m. yelling "Sound Off! 1,2,3,4! Sound off!" but the Crimson wasn't.

"We're just not a morning team," Scherrer said.

"We just got swamped," Scherrer noted. So the Crimson pulled its best players early in the Navy game, hoping to have them well rested for the Richmond contest.

After two straight losses, Harvard had little motivation entering Sunday morning's Washington & Lee contest. "It was a very frustrating loss," Scherrer said--but not an unexpected one. Two starting Crimson players were so upset at the weekend's course of events that they swore at the referees and earned themselves ejections.

Building

After these season-ending losses, the Crimson begins to look to the future. Harvard will lose only one senior from this year's squad, and could be considered one of the strongest teams in the east next year.

"This was a building year," Scherrer stressed. "Next year, we're going to come back in great shape and kill some of these teams."

Scherrer pointed out that this weekend's tournament was useful because "we see our mistakes." He said, "Navy beat us because they're much faster than us, Washington & Lee reacts quicker to the ball," and the Crimson had trouble preparing its set offense against Richmond.

To correct these deficiencies, several Crimson players will spend the summer practicing in California.