The Lampoon's Loss is Harvard's Gain

Harvard Tri-Captain Lynley Ogilvie is one of the leading scorers on the Harvard women's water polo team this year. In the process, she has redefined the word "metamorphosis."

As a youngster living in Parkersburg, W. Va., she had to undergo a transformation from a gawky five-year-old to a championship swimmer.

"I was really clumsy as a kid, and so my parents sent me to the pool to become a swimmer because you don't have to worry about gravity," Ogilvie says. "To this day, my father makes jokes like, 'Thank God you're a swimmer because we know what you're like on land.'"

She became a member of a local swim team at age five and kept at it, swimming in state, regional, and local competitions in West Virginia.

It was easy to keep active as a swimmer in Parkersburg because it was, and still is, a swimming hotbed. Parkersburg has not lost the city swimming championships in 15 years. Former members of the team included 1984 Olympic silver medalist Betsy Mitchell, who is favored to win the backstroke in the Seoul Olympics.

When applying for schools, Ogilvie had her heart set on pursuing Japanese studies at Georgetown.

"I thought that was my first choice, and I got in there and went to see it," Ogilvie says. "I also got into Harvard, and came to see it two days after that. And I just loved Harvard, and I decided that's where I wanted to be."

But did she make her decision based on Harvard's prestige, facilities, or the East Asian Studies department? Not exactly.

"I just liked the sense of humor here. I think that was the deciding factor, to tell you the truth," Ogilvie says. "I went to see a speech that was given to pre-frosh by Dean Moses and a few other speakers, and it was just really clever. I enjoyed the humor so much, and the only type of humor that I could have compared it to at that time was British humor. I enjoyed that as a kid so much and never got to see any of it in West Virginia."

After that first taste of the Harvard experience, she had her heart set on what she wanted to do.

"I came back to the the room, and there was a copy of the Lampoon--and this is when the Lampoon used to be really good-and I read it," Ogilvie says. "And I thought, "That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go to Harvard, I'm going to live in Adams House, and I'm going to write for the Lampoon.'"

Ogilvie is at Harvard. But she lives in Winthrop House and plays women's water polo in the spring while she is not working for Harvard Student Agencies as a travel guide editor.

As a four-year participant on the women's water polo team, Ogilvie had to also undergo a metamorphosis herself.

In her freshman year, she played on the perimeter as a driver. But when Harvard Coach Chris Hafferty came into the program in 1985, he decided to put the 5-ft., 10-in. Ogilvie at the two-meter position.

"In my first game, I scored my first-and last-backhand shot," Ogilvie recalls. "I was really excited about the position. I thought, 'Great, I found something for me.'"

But in that two-meter position, there are risks involved, especially if you're playing tough competition. While playing Stanford in her sophomore year, she took an elbow in the eye in the first two minutes of the game, sidelining her for the rest of the tournament.

"I think sophomore year, I really started to learn the game," Ogilvie says. "When I started out as a freshman, I didn't know what defense and offense were. I was just completely clueless."

And now, she has made the transformation from the raw talent to the polished, experienced hole player.

"Every time I'm in the pool, no matter where I am, I look to score or get an assist," Ogilvie says. "Being in the hole taught me the subtleties of the game."

One thing Ogilvie has that many hole players don't have is deceptive speed which translates well into the Crimson's style of play. And that translated into her best water polo performance, when she scored the game-winning goal in the fourth quarter to lead Harvard to a 7-4 victory over MIT.

"I thought to myself, 'This is the point where I can make a difference,'" Ogilvie says. "I've done it a million times, I've been playing for three years, and I've got to put all these lessons that I know together and have the best game of my life.'"

And she did. With MIT's shot clock winding down towards zero, Ogilvie and Tara Gustilo released their defensive assignments and sprinted down the pool two-on-zero. Ogilvie swam the ball in, and--using Gustilo as a decoy--got Harvard's game-winner.

The tremendous momentum garnered by the Harvard program from that one game has translated into a 12-2 record this season and a possible shot at the national tournament. But first the Crimson must win the Eastern Tournament this weekend. And with teams like Slippery Rock and Bucknell expected to participate, it could be tough.

"I don't think we need to get too overconfident," Ogilvie says. "We need to be realistic about how good Slippery Rock is, and still will be. We'll just have to see."

After school, the East Asian Studies major will probably go to England on a fellowship. Ogilvie had always wanted to go to the Far East. So much for plans.