Nine-game Win Streak Highlights M. Water Polo Season Success

The Harvard men’s water polo team learned first-hand the fickle nature of single-elimination tournament play when its season—one of the most successful campaigns in the history of the program—ended prematurely with a 7-6 first-round loss to seventh-seeded Brown at home in the Northern Division Championships.

The then-No. 15 Crimson (17-8, 11-3 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Northern) entered the tournament seeded second and having already beaten the Bears twice during the best regular season in school history. But rankings and records can always be thrown out the window when Harvard meets Brown, and this matchup was no exception.

Without co-captain Alex Fisher—who had suffered a broken cheekbone in the previous weekend’s ECAC Championships—and senior goaltender Paul Tselentis—who was in his native South Africa interviewing as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship—the Crimson couldn’t put the Bears away and lost on a Brown goal with just 14 seconds remaining.

The defeat relegated Harvard to the consolation bracket and assured a finish no higher than fifth. Only the top four teams advance to compete for the Eastern Championship and a Final Four berth.

An encouraging aspect from an otherwise disappointing weekend was the play of freshman Robbie Burmeister, who filled in admirably for Tselentis.

At the previous weekend’s ECAC Championships, the Crimson had its nine-game winning streak snapped in a semifinal loss to Princeton before falling to Navy in the third-place game.

Harvard had been riding high at the end of its regular season, having beaten league rivals then-No. 15 St. Francis and No. 20 Iona during its winning streak.

The Crimson’s hot stretch began during its first-ever appearance at the NorCal Invitational, which features 16 of the top teams in the country. There, Harvard beat UC-Santa Cruz and then-No. 19 UC-Davis to finish 13th after falling to then-No. 12 UC-Santa Barbara and then-No. 3 and eventual tournament champion USC.

Senior Istavan Zollei and co-captain Mike Masterson led the Crimson with nine and six goals, respectively, while Tselentis made 14 saves.

Harvard opened its season by defeating MIT, Brown and Williams at the Harvard Invitational.

The Crimson finished the year ranked 19th in the country.

“We had a really great season,” said senior Theo Ludwick. “It just ended in a really poor way when we lost that last game to an unranked Brown team. We played well, but were just unlucky.”

After the season, Masterson became just the second All-American in Harvard water polo history when the American Water Polo Coaches Association named him an Honorable Mention All-American.

Masterson, the team MVP, was also named to the CWPA All-Conference second team. Zollei was a first-team selection.

Harvard coach Jim Floerchinger resigned in early May, but the new coach will assume control of a program that has recently had plenty of success on which to build.

“We were really happy with our team performance,” junior Todd Schulte said. “We had one of the best seasons and records in Harvard history.”

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.

MEN'S WATER POLO

Record 17-8, 11-3 CWPA Northern

Coach Jim Floerchinger

Captains Mike Masterson and Alex Fisher

Highlights No. 19 Harvard suffered a tough 7-6 loss to unranked Brown in the Northern Championships, eliminating the Crimson from tournament play. Co-captain Mike Masterson was named as just the second All-American in program history wtih Honorable Mention All-American accolades.