Women's Water Polo Places Last at Easterns

After receiving an at-large bid last Monday, the Harvard women’s water polo team traveled to Princeton, N.J., this weekend for the Eastern Division Championship.

The eighth-seeded Crimson (11-15) dropped all three of its contests en route to a last-place finish.

Although the results were not in Harvard’s favor, the weekend was a successful one for a Crimson squad that is in the unusual position of returning its entire roster next year.

“You can’t grow fast—you have to go through experience in order to get experience,” head coach Erik Farrar said. “I think we learned a lot this year, and I think a lot of that learning happened this weekend.”

“Next year we hope to be back and have a better showing,” junior co-captain Lauren Snyder said.

BUCKNELL 6, HARVARD 3

Harvard fell to Bucknell (15-17) in its final game of the season to finish last in the eight-team Eastern Championships.

The game was largely decided on advantage situations. The Bison, which drew eight ejections, executed extremely well, scoring on five of their advantage opportunities.

In contrast, the Crimson found the back of the net on just two of its six man-up situations.

Sophomore Devon MacLaughlin drew three of the six ejections.

While Harvard played tight defense and only gave up six goals, Bucknell was even stingier.

The Bison stripped the ball from the Crimson 13 times and held a shutout through the first half.

“You have to throw it to the proper-colored hat,” Farrar said. “That is where experience will have the greatest positive impact.”

Harvard got two goals from Snyder and one from freshman Kristina Bergquist.

BROWN 12, HARVARD 3

Brown was able to capitalize on the inconsistent Crimson defense to run away with Saturday’s afternoon game.

There were spurts, especially the third quarter, when Harvard outscored the Bears 3-1, during which the Crimson was able to limit Brown’s fast-break opportunities.

But Brown exploded in the second and fourth quarters for four goals and five goals, respectively.

Freshmen Ariel Delgado played a solid game between the pipes for the Crimson.

Delgado, who boasted 16 saves including two stops on penalty shots, was the main reason Harvard was able to stay within striking distance until the fourth quarter, which the Crimson entered trailing, 7-3.

“Ariel was having a really great game,” Snyder said. “She was making a lot of point-blank saves.”

HARTWICK 16, HARVARD 1

In the first game of the tournament Hartwick College, the top seed and defending Eastern champion, dominated eighth-seeded Harvard.

Before the game was even two minutes old, the Hawks had built a 3-0 advantage.

By the end of the first quarter, they were up, 8-1.

The Crimson scored its lone goal with less than three minutes to play in the opening frame, already down 5-0. Junior Melissa McCreery collected a pass from freshman Roxanne Pinto and buried it high in the Hartwick net.

The Hawks added to their margin with three goals in the second, one in the third, and four to close out the game.

The Hartwick attack overpowered sophomore goalie Nicola Perlman, who is also a Crimson editor, along with the rest of the Crimson defense.

Perlman recorded just five saves in the outing.

Harvard could not find its rhythm offensively either.

Despite drawing 10 ejections, the Crimson converted just one for a goal.

“They are on a very different level than most of the other teams here,” Farrar said of Hartwick. “I think, given time, we will get to that level.”

—Staff writer Julia R. Senior can be reached at jrsenior@fas.harvard.edu.