Polomen Seventh At Eastern Tourney

The Harvard men's water polo team floundered through its first two games in the Eastern tournament before catching its breath to beat Villanova 12-8 on Sunday.

The weekend's results placed the Crimson seventh in the eight-team tournament held at Brown.

"On the books it wasn't that disappointing since we were picked to finish seventh," junior Jullian Alexander said. "But we were hoping to do better and we had a chance to."

The Crimson faced an imposing Navy squad Saturday in the first round and lost 19-10 to the eventual second-place finishers.

The Crimson fell behind 4-0 early in the contest but managed to close the gap to 5-4 before the ninth-ranked Midshipmen dunked the outmatched polo men.

"They were just faster, bigger and more physical than us," head coach Don Benson said. "We played well for a while but they were too strong."

The loss against Navy dropped the Crimson into the losers bracket where it first faced Queens, the 19th-ranked team in the nation.

The Crimson had beaten the Queens squad 12-8 earlier in the season, but it couldn't turn in a repeat performance Saturday. Harvard dropped the contest 12-10.

Once again the Crimson started slowly and found itself behind 9-5 in the third quarter.

It managed to knot the contest at ten before giving up a two-point goal with one minute left in the contest.

"It was a pretty poor performance on our part," Busquets said. "It was our worst game of the year. We missed so many shots that we should have made."

Alexander led the Crimson attack with four goals and freshman Andy Miller pitched in three. Freshman Ed Chen started in goal for both games on Saturday.

The Crimson's two losses Saturday dropped it into the seventh-eighth place contest, pitting it against Villanova on Sunday.

The polo men rebounded from their earlier disappointments and defeated the Friars 12-8 to capture seventh place.

"The Villanova game was a good win," Busquets said. "I'm glad we ended the year on a high note."

Busquets, playing in his last game, tallied four goals and senior goalie Jeb Miller notched 16 saves. Also playing his last game was senior Kevin Turis.

The seventh-place finish in this year's Easterns comes a year after the Crimson failed to even qualify for the annual season-ending tournament.

"We were hoping to finish in the top four," coach Benson said. "But finishing seventh is a big step forward from last year."

The competition at the Easterns was dominated by national powerhouses UMass and Navy. The Minutemen beat Navy in the finals to win the title.

The rest of the field was more evenly matched and the Crimson had a shot to finish as high as third.

The seeding, however, worked against the Crimson as it faced Navy in the first round.