Kennifer’s Quick Start Not Enough Against Hartwick

Remember those days of swimming in the neighborhood pool and bouncing off of the cement floor? While fun for a third-grader, it was not so much fun for the Harvard women’s water polo team. Playing in No. 11 Hartwick’s shallow Moyer Pool on Saturday, the Crimson (11-10, 0-1 CWPA North) faced defensive trouble in the new environment, eventually falling to the Hawks (19-4, 1-0), 15-8.

“I thought it was actually one of our better games against Hartwick,” sophomore Monica Zdrojewski said. “They are a very good team, and they have an advantage over us in that they can recruit and give scholarships, which is something that in the Ivy League we don’t have the ability to do.”

In Harvard’s first game of North Division play—after the postponement of last Wednesday’s matchup versus Brown—the Crimson started strong before losing momentum in the last three quarters.

“I thought we put up a good fight,” junior Patty Smith said. “There are always things that we can work on on offense and defense, but we had some people really step up and we are really excited to play them [again] in a pool that is not shallow next weekend.”

The shallow pool, with one end covered with only four feet of water, proved troublesome for Harvard’s athletes.

“I think it affected us a lot,” sophomore Shannon Purcell said. “Their pool, it’s very similar to a backyard pool. They practice in it all the time, so they know how to play with it, but we don’t practice in a shallow pool, so it was really different—like shooting on [the shallow net], because the goal is two feet higher and the goalie can jump off the bottom of the pool.”

Saturday wasn’t just the first time the Crimson played in a less-than-ideal pool this season, but it was also the first time it faced its northern foe.

“[After seeing them play in tournaments], we knew what we were getting ourselves into for the game,” Smith said. “They were pretty much what we expected.”

Knowing the other team was beneficial in the first quarter, as Harvard played Hartwick close, trailing by just one at the end of the first eight minutes, with the score 5-4.

“We were very aggressive,” Purcell said. “We created a lot of opportunities on offense, and we didn’t really rush things this time, so a lot of the goals we got were in the last five seconds [of the shot clock]—which is a really good thing, because we were able to finish and not throw the ball away.”

“I think we had a very good first quarter,” Zdrojewski said. “It was one of the best starts to the game we’ve had this year, and offensively, we were doing a lot of movement. We were able to get the ball to Devan [Kennifer] very effectively, so that was a strong point.”

Sophomore Kennifer was the strongest force for the Crimson, scoring four goals in the first period, while Zdrojewski, Purcell, Smith and senior Roxanne Pinto each tallied one.

“I think Devan Kennifer probably had the game of her life,” Smith said. “The whole team was riding on her energy. Even outside of [her scoring], her attitude and spirit really helped us pull through.”

The rest of the match didn’t fare quite as well, as the Hawks outscored Harvard, 5-2, 3-1, and 2-1, in the final three periods.

“What I think we could improve on is definitely adapting our game,” Zdrojewski said. “When Devan in the first quarter got four goals, they started dropping and double-teaming her, and I think we didn’t do a good job of adapting and changing our game plan based on that.”

Harvard’s players still see a silver lining though, as the team looks to take the lessons from Saturday and apply them to the Crimson’s biggest match of the season thus far. After not having a chance to play last Wednesday because of an absent referee, Harvard seems more than ready to face Brown for the first time this season.

“We’re very excited,” Purcell said. “They are our biggest rival. It was a letdown not being able to play them [last] week, so we’re just even more pumped.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.