Men’s Water Polo Falls Flat Against Tiger ‘D’

After a mediocre showing against Princeton on Saturday, the Harvard men’s water polo team rebounded at the Princeton Invitational by thumping George Washington yesterday.

The 14-6 victory helped reassure the Crimson after suffering the 8-2 letdown against the Tigers.

“This weekend probably just reinforced what the team already knew—that we have the ability to beat any team on our schedule, but that it’s essential not to relax after any victory,” junior Todd Schulte said.

Aside from its stalled offensive effort against the Tigers, though, the tournament was mostly successful for the Crimson, who went 2-1 overall on the weekend and ran its season record to 6-2.

Against the Generals, Harvard sophomore Rick Offsay and senior Chris Lin dominated in the offensive end, while freshman Robbie Burmeister was solid in net.

“The team executed well during the GW game, which was nice to see after Princeton the night before,” Schulte said.

The tournament started for Harvard with a 7-5 win over St. Francis on Saturday.

Harvard was in control thoughout much of the match, as sophomore Mike Gerrity and Offsay combined for five goals to lead the Crimson to a 6-2 lead at the half.

Harvard let St. Francis creep back into the game in the second half, before ultimately holding on for the win.

“We weren’t able to put them away. We just weren’t playing very aggressively,” co-captain Alex Fisher said. “[However,] we never felt the game was in real jeopardy.”

Harvard met a much more difficult opponent in Ivy rival Princeton, who was seemingly unchallenged in its 8-2 victory. The loss was a bitter way to end the opening day of the tournament, which had started out so well for Harvard.

But poor execution by the Crimson, combined with a near perfect performance by the Tigers, led to the blowout.

Harvard had a difficult time solving the drop-style defense that Princeton played. The ‘drop’ is a double-teaming tactic in which a defending player lags off of his assignment to help cover another, stronger player.

“They played the best game I’ve ever seen. We played average,” Fisher said. “Our shots just weren’t falling.”

“I’m not sure it’s even the sort of game you try to analyze,” Schulte added, “but rather one you just use as motivation.”

Harvard hopes to apply the lessons learned at this week’s tournament in next week’s Cal-Berkeley Invitational.

Also this weekend, the Harvard ‘B’ squad competed at the Villanova Invitational, with the highlight coming in Friday’s 18-16 thriller over Army.

—Contributing writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.