M. Water Polo Loses to UMass, 9-6

After losing twice to UMass this season and five times last season, the men’s water polo team drove out to Amherst yesterday evening trying to finally beat the 13th-ranked Minutemen.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, the result was all too familiar as UMass’ Mike Foley scored four goals and Harvard fell to UMass, 9-6, at Pratt Pool in Amherst.

The Crimson (17-7 overall, 7-4 CWPA) fell behind 2-0 early in the first quarter, but pressed more effectively during the rest of the half to stay in the game.

But at every critical juncture, the Minutemen (21-3) seemed to retaliate with a goal of their own, constantly staying at least one goal ahead of the Crimson. The quarter came to a close with UMass leading 4-3.

The Crimson stormed out of the gate in the second quarter, scoring the first two goals. Junior driver Michael Masterson shot the second of the two to put Harvard on top, 5-4.

The Crimson kept the lead until the very end of the second quarter, when Minuteman senior Antonio Maldonado scored to tie the game going into the break.

In the third quarter, things began to go downhill for the Crimson, as the only successful shots on goal were fired by the Minutemen, leaving the score 7-5 in favor of UMass by the end of the quarter.

Hoping to regain the lead, Harvard came out fighting in the final quarter, scoring early to make the score 7-6.

That would be the end of the goal production for the Crimson, however, as the Minutemen shut down Harvard the rest of the way.

UMass added two insurance goals to clinch the victory.

“We failed miserably in the second half,” said co-captain Michael Crosby. “We were watching our offense a little bit, but we could have worked a little harder and gotten better shots off.”

The biggest problem that the Crimson had was following through with its game plan.

“We knew UMass’ strengths and we failed to use that knowledge to our advantage,” said volunteer assistant coach Omar Amr.

“We wanted to shut down their key player, Mike Foley, because he is by far their best player,” Crosby said. “But he still managed to score four, so we were very disappointed.”

UMass’ pool is much smaller than Harvard’s, which the Crimson players believe led to some of last night’s difficulties.

“We were rushing a lot in the second half,” Crosby said. “You have to rush in a smaller pool because everyone is so much closer together.”

Harvard has struggled to overcome this problem all season. The Crimson had wanted to bring its A-game to Amherst and control the tone of the game, but failed to dictate the pace of last night’s action.

“We need to learn to work on our game and work on bringing our game to the other team,” Crosby said. “Once we start to do that better, we will be in good shape to win these closer games.”

The Crimson hopes it will fair better on its own turf as it hosts the ECAC Championship this weekend.

It is possible that Harvard will face the Minutemen this weekend for a fourth time if each team makes it to the final rounds of the Championship—this time in its own larger pool.

Harvard will begin competition this weekend Saturday morning against George Washington University at 9.