W. Water Polo Wins Three

The Harvard women’s water polo team knocked off Ivy rival and No. 18 Brown in an exciting game to complete a 3-1 run in its first and only homestand of the season.

With only 25 seconds left in the game, the Crimson lead the Bears 5-4.

“Own the ball!” shouted Harvard coach Scott Russell to his squad, as it sought to push the ball into the Brown zone as the clock wound down.

But despite its coach’s advice, the Crimson turned the ball over to the Bears inside its own zone. Brown set up its offense looking to equalize, hurling a shot at co-captain Elana Miller in net with two seconds left.

After taking one shot on net, as time expired, the Bears were given a second chance, when two seconds were added back onto the clock and Brown given one last chance.

“I was scared out of mind the last few minutes of the game,” Miller said. “Brown was down by one, and that made me nervous.”

But the Bears could do nothing with Harvard’s defense swarming as the crowd rose to its feet in support of the Crimson in its final home game of the season. The game also marked the end of Miller and co-captain Liz Anderson’s careers in Blodgett and the first time the pair had been on a team that beat Brown in three years.

“The last time we beat Brown was the first time we played them my freshman year,” Miller said.  “There couldn’t be a better end.”

The Crimson was down 1-0 early in the first but quickly rebounded to snatch back the momentum and a 2-1 lead at the half.

“The big change from yesterday was the execution,” Russell said.  “We scored five of our six goals on six-on-fives. Our defense was the same, [but] our offense utilized their opportunities.”

Sophomore Sarah Kennifer and junior Tina Codini each scored two goals. Kennifer was able to convert on two 6-on-5 opportunities while sophomore Arin Keyser assisted each of these goals. Codini converted on two long-range perimeter shots.

“We’ve been practicing a lot of 6-on-5 for 20 to 30 minutes everyday,” Kennifer said.  “Arin assisted all my goals.  She was able to wrestle the balls away and pop them out for us to score.”

Harvard tweaked its game so that Brown, a team it frequently competes against and will see again, would be forced to deal with a new wrinkle in its approach.

“We know every players name on Brown and how they play,” Kennifer said. “We slightly changed things to throw them off.”

One month ago the Crimson lost to Brown 8-1. Harvard has worked hard and the fruits of its labor are now paying off.

“We’re a better team than we were a month ago,” said Russell.  “We’ve been working really hard mornings and afternoons.  Maybe we’ve worked harder than Brown.  This will give us confidence as we focus on Princeton and Brown during the Championship portion of our season.”

HARVARD 8, CONNECTICUT COLLEGE 1

The Crimson continued its dominance of Connecticut College yesterday morning as it handily beat the Camels 8-1. Having rolled over Connecticut 17-2 the night before, the Crimson altered its game plan in order to not drive up the score and work on their technical skills.

“We worked on our pics, side drives in order to help us out tonight against Brown,” said junior 2-meter defender Teresa Codini. “Instead of going out on a counter-attack immediately, we wait up to play a 6-on-6 offense, which we will need against Brown.”

Even while holding Harvard still had no trouble beating the Camels. Junior driver Diane Dewey got the balling rolling as she sunk one past Connecticut’s Margaret Minnick less than two minutes into the game.

Harvard’s aggression on D against the Camels’ passive offense created turnovers and gave the Crimson several offensive opportunities.  The Camel’s only goal came with 3:46 left in the second period.

The score is a testament to Harvard’s depth, as only one person, Teresa Codini, scored more than one of the Crimson’s two goals. Harvard rotated their players regularly and switched from sophomore Lydia Gardner to Miller at the half. Slowing down the game enabled Harvard to practice its passing, many times causing them to flirt with the shot clock before nailing one into the goal.

“We wanted to get the ball moving for tonight,” said Tina Codini.

BROWN 3, HARVARD 1

With its strongest showing against its archrival in over a year, the Crimson fell narrowly to Brown in a grueling 3-1 grudge match.  Harvard managed to hold the physical Bears scoreless in the first period, before Brown rattled off two unanswered goals in the second period.

The Bears’ Jackie Parente powered both of Brown’s first two points past Gardner.

Down 2-0 at the half, the Crimson went into the second half maintaining their high quality of play.

“Usually we try to come out strong and not get pushed around against a physical team like Brown,” Tina Codini said. “We did that.”

Harvard stayed in the faces of the aggressive Brown offense, enabling few attempts at goal.  With 3:11 left in the third quarter, Brown was able to break through the Crimson defense again, as the Bears’ Lauren McGeoch fired one past Gardner.

Harvard stayed strong on defense as Gardner denied another Brown attempt with 1:57 left to play. Finally with 1:27 left in the quarter, Harvard put its hard work on the scoreboard as Keyser lofted a shot past the Brown keeper, making it 3-1.

“It’s nice to have the score show your effort,” Keyser said.

Like the first quarter, neither team could capitalize in the fourth as the Bears held off a Crimson rally.  Harvard had its best chance to close the gap, off a penalty shot awarded with nine seconds left, but Crimson sophomore Sarah Kennifer was unable to get it past the Brown goalie. The narrow loss gave Harvard confidence in its strong showing.

“We held our own the entire game,” Tina Codini said. “We’re only going to get better against them.”

HARVARD 17, CONNECTICUT COLLEGE 2

The tournament opened with a dominating win over Connecticut College as the Crimson was able to outperform the Camels in a 17-2 decision.  Harvard grabbed the early lead and never looked back.  Nine different scorers contributed to the victory for Harvard.

“We did a really nice job the first quarter,” Russell said.  “It had been two weeks since the team had last played.  It was nice to see the intensity after the break.”