M. Water Polo Places Third at Easterns

Competing in its last tournament of the season, the Harvard men’s water polo team earned third place at the Eastern Championships at Princeton, N.J., with two wins and a loss.

This weekend sent Harvard’s seniors out on a winning—and historic—note. Harvard had never placed third at Easterns in its 21-year history before this weekend.

“The season has been the greatest pleasure, we really came together as a team,” senior two-meter Sean Cheng said.

The weekend began with a game Saturday afternoon against Navy, a tough team that had beaten the Crimson 10-5 earlier this season. Despite being down 3-1 near the end of the third quarter, the Crimson (25-10 Overall, 7-3 CWPA) came back to win 5-3.

“They are traditionally the powerhouse of the [CWPA’s] Southern Division,” Cheng said of Navy, who won the Eastern title last year.

“We knew we had to run an attack-oriented offense because they press very hard,” Cheng added.

Harvard had spent two weeks preparing for Navy, knowing that it would have to defeat the Midshipmen in order to have a chance at earning one of the top four spots in the tournament.

The Crimson came together and played one of the best games it has had all season.

“Our team play was really good,” co-captain Mike Crosby said. “It was really cool to hear that the U.S. National Team coach said that we have the best team defense that he has seen at the collegiate level.”

After defeating Navy in the afternoon, the Crimson faced Queens College Saturday evening. The match was the fourth between the two teams this season. Harvard had previously lost twice and defeated Queens once.

After its challenging match with Navy, Harvard entered its meeting with Queens as the slightly more battle-tested squad. Queens—as the top seed in the Northern Division—had drawn Johns Hopkins in the first round. The Blue Jays were only the fourth-best team in the Southern Division and were easily dismissed by the Royals.

Going into halftime, Harvard and Queens were tied 3-3. But in the third quarter, the Royals scored two unanswered goals and then ran away with the lead.

“Part of the reason we ran out of gas was that they had played a much easier game earlier in the day,” Crosby said.

The Crimson went on to lose 7-3.

“They were emotionally and physically well rested, while we came out looking beat,” Cheng added.

After a night of sleep, Harvard rebounded Sunday afternoon against the St. Francis. The score was tied 4-4 at the midway mark, but in the second half, Harvard dominated the game. The Crimson never trailed and came out on top 8-7.

“We really came together as a team for two and a half of the games,” Crosby said. “I think that Harvard made some big steps in establishing ourselves as a great team this year.”

Overall, the team said it was ecstatic about the season. With the addition of volunteer assistant coach Omar Amr, Harvard made great strides in 2001.

Amr is a member of the United States National Team and is a first-year student at Harvard Medical School.

“The greatest gift to our team has been Omar Amr,” Cheng said. “He’s a lot more than the words ‘volunteer assistant’ say—he’s the heart of the team.”

At the end of the tournament it was announced that both Cheng and co-captain Gresham Bayne received First Team All-East honors.

Cheng and Bayne were two of nine seniors who played their final game yesterday.

“I’m already missing the season because I feel like we made some major steps and really surprised a lot of people,” Crosby said. “It was a great end to my four-year career.”