Men's Water Polo Qualifies for Northern Regionals

The No. 19 Harvard men's water polo team saw two things end this weekend--a chance at the ECAC championships and its impressive 11-game winning streak.

No. 13 St. Francis halted the roll the Crimson was on, topping Harvard, 15-9, Saturday at the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) weekend at UMass-Amherst.

The Crimson (17-8, 7-3 CWPA) split its four games at UMass, losing to St. Francis and defeating Fordham, 13-7, and Connecticut College, 11-0, on Saturday, and falling 12-7 to Queens College on Sunday.

Harvard's strong showings against Connecticut and Fordham had been expected, however, the challenge for the Crimson was the other matches and it fell a little short.

The Crimson started the weekend at a definite disadvantage. The UMass pool is considerably smaller than the 20 by 30-meter regulation size Harvard is accustomed to. The smaller pool catered to Harvard's opponents' style of play, a faster and much more physical game.

The Crimson ran into trouble in the third quarter in its losses against St. Francis and Queens.

Harvard was ahead of St. Francis, 4-3, after the first quarter, but fell behind, 7-5, after the second.

The Terriers then launched a four-goal assault on the Crimson in the first four minutes of the third quarter.

Against Queens, Harvard fought the same demons. The Crimson contained the Knights to five goals at the half, trailing by just one, 5-4.

However, Queens emerged in the third quarter, scoring four goals in the opening four minutes. Harvard was not able to regroup and although the Knights never could extend their lead, the Crimson couldn't cut into it either and fell, 12-7.

"We really wanted to beat either St. Francis or Queens," junior driver Mike Crosby said. "We showed that in the first half of each game, but the other teams came out harder than us, and we lapsed."

The pool played a big part in that lapse, however.

"We came out ready to play," junior goalie Gresham Bayne said. "But the pool was really small and we're used to playing in larger space. The whole game changes in a pool that small."

Although it might have seemed that Crimson caved to their opponents, the team knows that its big weekend is still ahead of it.

Though the losses will keep Harvard out of ECACs, the Crimson more importantly still qualified for Northern Regionals. This tournament is the first step in making the NCAA Tournament. Success at Northern Regionals will advance Harvard to Easterns at which the Crimson can qualify for the Dance.

The Crimson would be at next weekend's ECAC Championships at Princeton as well, if it had managed a split against St. Francis and Queens.

Despite having two non-league games left on its schedule, the Crimson will now begin preparing for Northern Regionals, which it will host Nov. 3-5.

The Crimson goes into that tournament seeded fourth. If Harvard can place fourth or better, it will advance to the Eastern Championships. That tournament will be held two weeks later at Brown.