Aquamen Gain Easterns Berth

This weekend, the Harvard water polo team will be exactly where it wants to be.

With an impressive 13-6 record under its belt, Harvard was one of eight teams invited yesterday to the Eastern Championships, to be held this weekend in Annapolis, MD.

The invitation came on the heels of the Crimson's third place showing at the New England Championships this past weekend at Brown University.

"We've played very well for the past couple of weeks, so I feel good about this team," said Harvard Coach Andy Freed.

Although the berth to Easterns was all but assured before this weekend, the team was anxious for a good showing at the New England tournament.

It got it. In its first round game against Yale, Harvard came out strong and crushed its hapless opponents, 21-7.

Junior Jeff Zimmerman, who led the team in scoring last weekend, set a possible NCAA water polo record by scoring two goals in four seconds, and he finished with a total of seven goals in the rout.

The second game, with nemesis Brown, turned out to be a classic defensive struggle. Harvard goalie Danny Oakes and Brown netminder Kevin Neumann refused to succumb to both sides' offensive pressure.

Despite repeated shots on goal--28 in all--the Crimson scored only twice and eventually lost to the Bears, 5-2.

"We were disappointed, because we played a superb defensive game, but we just didn't get the breaks at the end. It was basically a two goal game all the way through. It could have gone either way," Oakes said.

In the third game, Harvard rebounded to defeat Boston College, 7-6. Stingy defense once again prevailed on both sides, with Co-Captain Mason Ford leading the way for Harvard.

"We were kind of let down in the B.C. game, because we had just finished watching Brown and UMass playing for the championship, and we felt like that should've been us," Freed said.

Despite the third place finish at New Englands, though, Harvard is far from dead. The season begins anew next weekend in Annapolis.

All season long, the Harvard players and coaches have been aiming at the Easterns. The top two teams at the tournament will advance to the NCAA championships.

By virtue of its sixth place seed, Harvard will open the tournament against third seed Slippery Rock.

According to Freed, the rankings are misleading. "Slippery Rock started the season highly ranked, but they've been really shaky in the last few weeks. We can definitely beat them," he said.

Can Harvard slip by Slippery Rock? If so, will it defeat Princeton, its likely semifinal opponent? Will this really be the season that Harvard makes it to the NCAAs?

It will all be settled this weekend in Annapolis. The whole season has come down to this.