Aquawomen Sweep Five Matches This Weekend

It was a weekend of road victories for the Harvard women's water polo team--the Crimson swept its five-game series, including a win over some unusual competition.

Friday night, the team traveled to Amherst, Mass. to play the Middlebury men's team and captured a 14-10 victory.

Saturday, Harvard's "A" team split from the squad to Providence, R.I., to play in the Brown Invitational while the other half of the team stayed in Amherst for two more games.

In Providence, the Crimson defeated MIT, 12-6, and Brown, 14-2.

Stephanie Faro was especially excited about the win over the Engineers.

"We played a great game and a great defense," Faro said. "We are coming together as a team and communicating much better. We found out this weekend that everyone can play and score. There is no star on the team."

Kate Ford also commented on the team spirit. "We played really well together. We were talking to each other more, which makes a lot of difference. We were very tired from the MIT game and Brown was ready to beat us."

Harvard also was handicapped by a lack of depth since half of its team was in Amherst, Ford said. "But we just played harder and beat them. Beating the Middlebury men's team was a big thing and I think it helped us out against Brown."

Meanwhile in Amherst, the Crimson "B" team soundly defeated Amherst and Mount Holyoke, 11-6 and 22-7, respectively.

"Amherst was a good team," acting Coach Joe Kaufman said. "Harvard never trailed."

Halfway through the third period, Amherst came back from a two-point deficit to tie the Crimson, 4-4. But Harvard quickly rebounded to take an 8-6 lead and finally won the game, 11-6.

Valerie Nellen led the scoring with four goals and goalie Karen Flick shut out the opposition in the second period.

"It was a mismatch to start with," said Kaufman, referring to the game against Mount Holyoke. "They were pretty slow swimmers."

The Crimson jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first period and held on to win by 16 points.

Nellen again led the scoring, this time with eight goals.

"I had a lot of fun," Nellen said. "We got to play the whole game, which is unusual for most of the people on the `B' team."

"Overall, it was a good chance for these people to build their confidence in playing and shooting," Kaufman said, "especially considering that most of the `A' team players are seniors."

THE NOTEBOOK: The Crimson will compete next weekend down the river in the MIT Invitational.