Water Polo Dunks Engineers, 7-3

The fourth quarter has not been kind to the Harvard women's water polo team in its games against MIT this year.

In their two previous meetings with the Crimson, the Engineers pulled off two last-second comebacks to salvage a 10-10 tie and grab a 9-8 win.

But Saturday, in front of 50 spectators at MIT's Alumni Pool, the Crimson finally put together a winning fourth-period effort--a 4-0 run--to defeat the Engineers, 7-3. The victory gave Harvard first place in the MIT Invitational Tournament.

The Crimson, which finished its season 7-4-1, picked up its first goal from Lyn Ogilvie 2:19 into the game, during a 6-on-5 advantage. But the Engineers got three goals in just over two minutes to post a 3-1 advantage.

Harvard fought back with a goal by Emily Ozer at the close of the first period, and a goal from Eileen Pratt opened the second to knot the game at three.

The rest of the contest featured tighter defense than the squads had exhibited in their two previous meetings. The first two-and-a-quarter games played between Harvard and MIT were offensive displays, with 43 goals in just over 54 minutes of action. But neither team scored between Pratt's goal and the close of the third quarter.

"Both teams really wanted to win so we were really playing tight defense," said junior Co-Captain Leslie Barbi. "We were all being really intense."

MIT's defensive intensity suffered in the first minutes of the fourth period, and Harvard Co-Captain Kelley Withy notched a pair of goals 49 seconds apart to build a 5-3 lead. The Engineers, sensing that momentum had shifted away from them, began to open up their offense, hoping to make something happen.

Home Perm

But with less than two minutes to go, the Engineer defense left Ogilvie, Withy and Tara Gustilo open at the MIT end of the pool for a three-on-one situation with the goalie. Harvard took full advantage of the opportunity, as Ogilvie converted for a 6-3 lead. She scored again with less than a minute left to ice the victory.

"Everything came together," Barbi said. "I was really impressed with our mental toughness."

In Harvard's other two games, the Crimson used six different scorers to beat Brown, 12-7. And Withy, playing in her final collegiate game, registered eight goals and three assists to beat the University of Massachusetts, 16-1.

Sieve Scores

The UMass game was also punctuated by an unusual moment. Junior goaltender Tamsyn Seimon was working on a shutout until she was scored on--by the UMass goaltender.

The opposing goalie's mighty heave was the only goal scored by a goalie in the tournament under a new rule allowing the goalie to score.

"I guess I learned an important lesson," said Seimon. "I was too far out of the net."