Men's Water Polo Starts Well, Finishes Slow

After thrashing MIT at home on Thursday, the Harvard water polo team headed into Saturday's Northern Division Tournament with high hopes. But despite a good start, the tournament ended with a disappointing finish.

Harvard played its first game against the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The result was a victory for the Crimson, 20-12. In the second game, Harvard faced host team Fordham and trounced it as well, 19-5.

Next up was St. Francis. The game was a grueling one, with no team able to come up with a strong lead throughout the entire game.

After three quarters of tough team defense by both squads, the loss of Busquets and Alexander caused a drop in scoring, and St. Francis came out with an upset, by a score of 8-7.

Thus the Crimson found itself out at the end of the third round, and could only watch as St. Francis moved on to the next.

When asked what he thought were the reasons for the loss, Busquet stated that he "felt good about the first two games," but that the last game "two of our players majored out," and the team was just unable to come up with enough scoring to finish on top.

Busquet pointed out that there is room get better. Though he noted team defense as a strength, he felt that improvement is still needed: "We need to work harder on team defense, helping guys when they're burnt."

But Busquet also mentioned that the team is functioning coherently, that there is chemistry, and all it needs "is a little fine tuning."

Coach Don Benson mentioned strong performances by a number of players, among them first-year goalie Ed Chen, who started in both the Fordham and St. Francis games.

"He came up with key blocks at crucial times," Benson said.

Also lauded was the performance of junior Alex Kim, who, in the words of Benson, "established himself not only as a good scorer, but one of the best two-meter defenders in the East."