Saved by the Bell: The Invisible Men

At least 24 Harvard students won't be able to watch the 117th iteration of The Game in two weeks.

But none of them mind.

The Harvard men's water polo team has a conflicting engagement in Providence, R.I. There, the Crimson will compete in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Championships, the qualifying meet for the NCAA Tournament.

By going 3-1 at the Northern Championships and beating Brown on Sunday, 7-5, the team made its first Easterns in eight years and wrote another chapter in the best Crimson sports story no one knows about.

In a sport traditionally dominated by California teams, Harvard has become a forced to be reckoned with. While nowhere near as shocking as the rise of the Jamaican bobsled team, the team's recent rise certainly warrants more attention than it has received until this point.

This weekend's football game against Columbia drew 6,721 spectators. A crowd of 67 people for a midweek tussle at Blodgett Pool would be surprising. You probably won't see the John Harvard mascot at many of the team's games, either, but the occasional crazed roommate armed with either a cowbell or a flag helps to fill that void.

This weekend, Blodgett Pool was packed. The women's water polo team, both swimming teams and a plethora of friends, parents and refugees from the cancelled women's hockey game piled into the stands to witness history.

The Crimson didn't disappoint, despite having to qualify the hard way. The major stumbling block came in the form of an idiosyncratic Northern Championship schedule.

Having created room in the tournament for three new teams, the CWPA scrapped its old, reliable tournament configuration and instituted a bizarre round-robin setup in its place.

The arrangement forced Harvard, seeded fourth in the tournament by virtue of its league record, to play one game more than fifth-seeded Brown in order to qualify. Harvard had to play an extra game against a capable Iona squad, knowing that the rested Bears would be waiting on the other side.

The Crimson approached the scheduling quirk the way as just another obstacle. Why not? For this bunch, after all, such adversity was just another day at the office.

Earlier in the season, Harvard was forced to play critical league games in a shallow Iona pool that more closely resembled a wading pool than an Olympic-caliber facility. Junior netminder Gresham Bayne has played the entire year with what looks like a bionic arm, after an injury last season nearly ruined his playing career.

And this past weekend, the other half of Harvard's spectacular goalkeeping combo, sophomore Paul Tselentis, sat out the clinching games after recovering from a frightening seizure.

Having experienced setbacks like these, the schedule's unfairness was just another challenge to overcome.

Perhaps, then, Harvard was simply due for the good news that came their way after it clinched. As the fourth seed, Harvard will play the Southern Champion in the first round of Easterns.

This year, No. 16 Navy eked out a 6-5 victory over Princeton to assume the top spot in the South.

Although it has struggled against Princeton, the Crimson has already beaten Navy this year. A one-point win at the North-South Invitational on October 1 keyed Harvard's 11-game win streak.

"There's something to be said about going in against someone you know you can play," Floerchinger said. "Regardless of how it turns out, it's the best thing that could've happened."

If the Crimson can duplicate its dramatic upset of Navy at Easterns, it will set up a pivotal second-round contest against the No. 13 UMass Minutemen.

UMass drubbed Harvard for the third time this year at Northerns, 12-2. Harvard scored the first and last goals but the Minutemen dominated in between. UMass controlled the game's outcome with a vacillating pace that they're generally better suited to.

However, the Crimson did not give up a single point in the halfcourt. If Harvard can somehow keep the emphasis of the next game game away from UMass' lethal counterattack, Harvard could pull off the greatest upset in its history and clinch a spot in the Big Dance.

It would be an appropriate ending to a breakthrough season for a team that hardly goes recognized.

You probably won't ever see a water polo player's picture here as Athlete of the Week. Floerchinger likes to point out that whenever one guy is doing all the scoring, something's probably wrong.

The team prides itself on unselfish play and balanced scoring. Although junior Mike Crosby is probably the team's best all-around player, sophomore Istvan Zollei is its fastest swimmer and sophomore Mike Masterson was once named CWPA Player of the Week, six or seven Crimson scorers will still find the back of the net in the average game.

The lack of statistical stars makes for pretty poor Crimson copy, but damn good water polo.

Damn good, but NCAA caliber? We'll soon see. When Yale rolls into town in two weeks and the world gasps with each Robbie Wright attempt from 25 yards out, realize that the greatest Harvard victory that weekend might not take place in the Stadium at all. It may instead be the handiwork of Blodgett's invisible men.

And if you feel you've missed the boat on this obscure sport, don't worry. The squash season starts on Nov. 17.