Water Polo Tourney

Saturday, entering the final day of action in the Harvard Invitational Tournament, the Harvard women's water polo team had to keep an eye on the overall picture.

That's because the Crimson, following Friday night's last-minute loss to MIT, no longer held its destiny in its own hands.

In order to win its own tournament, Harvard had to hope for an Engineer loss. So when Queens College beat MIT, 8-7, all Harvard--which had already scored 46 goals in the tournament--had to do was knock off Queens in Saturday's nightcap.

No such luck. Queens topped the Crimson, 8-5, leaving the hosts with a 3-2 overall tourney record.

Harvard had started the day on a high note, downing Penn State, 18-4, and besting Rhode Island, 18-6.

In each game, the Crimson built an insurmountable lead in the first 10 minutes. Harvard played well on defense as well as offense, helping its goalies to keep the opposition off the scoreboard.

Kelley Withy picked up right where she left off Friday, scoring six goals against Penn State. She also recorded three tallies in the first three minutes against Rhode Island, all of them assisted by Emily Ozer.

In its final game against Queens, the Crimson got off to another fast start, as Ozer picked up her 20th point of the tournament, scoring a goal barely 10 seconds into the game.

But Queens, using a highly physical style of play, scored seven time in the first half while Harvard managed to score only two more goals, both by Ozer.

The Crimson shut down the Queens offense for all of the third period and most of the fourth, leaving the hosts a chance to make a comeback.

Harvard did manage to shift the momentum, scoring twice to bring the score to 7-5. But with two minutes remaining on the clock, Queens scored an advantage goal to take both the game and the tournament.