M. Water Polo Excels at Claremont Invitational

The No. 18 Harvard men’s water polo team escaped New England weather this weekend by flying to California to play in the Claremont Invitational. In spite of playing five games under the stress of time change and a new location, results indicate that outdoor pools and California crowds suit this team quite nicely as the Crimson won all five of its games.

“We did really well this weekend,” said co-captain Mike Crosby. “We came in mentally and physically prepared for every single game.”

The Crimson began the tournament on Thursday with a convincing 14-4 win against BYU-Hawaii at Pomona, a preview of its success to come.

Harvard continued to dominate on Friday, with junior Paul Tselentis holding strong in goal. Pomona again served as host as the Crimson took victories against Whittier and Pomona. Harvard bested Whitter, 7-4, then beat Pomona, 12-3.

On Saturday, the Crimson took its game to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, where it faced its toughest competition of theweekend in No. 20 University of Redlands.

Co-captain Gresham Bayne started in goal for the final two games, shining especially in the game against

Redlands.

With a few minutes left in the game and the score tied, 7-7, Harvard junior Istvan Zollei took advantage of a

man-up situation, scoring a goal to put the Crimson ahead. Harvard secured its victory with another goal soon

after, finishing with a score of 9-7.

The Crimson then clinched its winning weekend with a 12-3 win against Claremont, with the cheers of Harvard fans in the background.

“Both Claremont and Pomona were fun games,” Crosby said. “They were at home, but we actually had more fans there than they did. Seventeen people traveled and a lot of them are from California. It’s a really fun trip, [playing in outdoor pools] and seeing friends and family.”

By the end of the weekend, there was not a dry seat on the bench as Harvard was able to dig into its roster and play its entire team.

“Our whole game started to come together, especially our defense,” said sophomore Will Garrigues. “I think it

bodes very well for the future, especially this weekend’s game against Queens, who we haven’t played this

season and is a very very good opponent.”

Harvard goes back on the road next weekend when it travels to Brown to play Brown and No. 13 Queens on Saturday and then works its way out to New Rochelle, NY, to play Iona College on Sunday.