Polomen Take Third Place At Ivy Champs

Those who spent the entire day at the Head of the Charles did not miss much at Blodgett Pool yesterday. Harvard hosted the Ivy League Waterpolo Championships, which proved to be less than thrilling for the Harvard men's waterpolo team.

Harvard defeated Dartmouth, 16-5, in the first round of the single-elimination tournament, but lost to Brown in the semifinals on Saturday, 11-9.

Yesterday, Harvard defeated Yale in the consolation finals, 15-9, to take third place overall. Princeton upset Brown in the finals to win the Ivy crown.

"We had too many kickouts and penalties, and Brown converted these," Harvard Coach Andy Freed '90 said of his team's loss to Brown.

The Bears converted eight of 13 man-up situation in their victory, while Harvard converted none of its five similar opportunities.

Against Yale, junior Clifford Chen sparked his team to victory with several impressive saves. Also worthy of mention were co-captain Jeff Zimmerman and junior Jose Busquets, helped maintain an otherwise lifeless game with their offense.

"Jeff is one of the leading scorers in this country," Freed said. "I feel that pretty strongly. He has scored 90 goals in 16 games now."

Looking Ahead

"Although it would have been nice to win this tour nament, we are really looking to do well in next week's Northeastern tournament," Freed said. "That will be the deciding weekend for us."

Harvard faces Army this coming weekend, a team it has already defeated. The Crimson is seeded fourth in the Northern Waterpolo Division behind University of Massachusetts, Brown and Iona, respectively, while Army follows closely behind in fifth.

The four teams finishing tops at the tournament will proceed to the Eastern Championships, where they will confront the top four teams from the Southern division, with Navy posing the biggest challenge.

The two top schools from this championship will have the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving at Long Beach, Cal. at the NCAA championships.

"I am hoping the team will make it to California, as Harvard has never advanced further than the Eastern Championships," said Freed, who played in the Eastern Championships in 1989 when he was still an undergraduate.

While team members also conveyed optimism about their chances of going to California, co-captain Erik Atkisson said the team suffered from "mental barriers."

"When things go wrong, the team tends to fall apart and this has cost us in the past," Atkisson said. "We have trouble maintaining intensity throughout all four quarters."

Overcoming this will increase their prospects of making it to California, he added.