Men's Water Polo Falls Twice in New York

In its trip to the Big Apple on Saturday, the Harvard men’s water polo team came up fruitless.

The Crimson (12-14, 4-3 CWPA) traveled to New York to take on St. Francis (9-8, 3-2) and Mercyhurst (16-5, 10-0) for its final two games of the regular season, falling just short in both matches.

Harvard started its day against St. Francis, which capitalized on the Crimson’s slow start to claim the victory, 14-9. In its second game against Mercyhurst, Harvard surrendered a late lead and fell to the Lakers, 11-10, in a dramatic finish.

With four players out due to injury, the Crimson starters were unable to receive their typical rest.

“Playing with four guys down makes it a lot tougher to keep up,” freshman attacker Noah Harrison said. “Our energy was down during the second game, and I felt like this influenced the outcome of our game.”

Despite the disappointing weekend, Harvard coach Ted Minnis was pleased with the games, considering the circumstances.

“The whole team rallied around each other and battled for eight bursts [Saturday],” Minnis said. “Our guys played really well—we just didn’t catch some breaks down the stretch.”

Although the Crimson has now dropped its last nine games, Minnis is not overly concerned with the team’s performance heading into the postseason.

“I think if you look at it… we lost to probably five top-20 teams, three of which were [in the] top 10,” Minnis said. “We’ve played a very tough schedule, and I think we’re doing some good things and getting better. We’re just going to keep playing Harvard water polo.”

MERCYHURST 11, HARVARD 10

Harvard finished its regular season with a nailbiter—the Crimson went into the final three minutes leading the Lakers, 10-8, but a late run by Mercyhurst proved costly for Harvard.

With two minutes left, the Lakers pulled within one off of a score from Mercyhurst junior utility Garret Schoeman.

Just a minute later, Schoeman struck again, converting a penalty shot from Laker junior utility Isaac Ogloblin into a Mercyhurst score to tie up the contest at 10 apiece. The duo teamed up once more to score the game-winner with 12 seconds left to play.

Fatigue, according to Harrsion, was a central problem late in the second game of the day for the Crimson.

“We came out with intensity during the St. Francis game, and we were lacking some of that intensity during the Mercyhurst game,” Harrison said. “We probably had about an hour of rest to actually lay low and relax before the [Mercyhurst] game. We don’t have the [greatest] amount of [substitutes] in the world, so our guys got tired.”

The teams matched each other goal-for-goal throughout the beginning of the game, but even strong performances by freshman attacker Blake Lee and sophomore utility Max Murphy and a solid defensive effort by freshman goalie Colin Woolway could not yield a victory. Lee and Murphy scored four goals apiece, while Woolway recorded 19 saves, a career high.

ST. FRANCIS 14, HARVARD 9

Although freshman 2-meter Ben Zepfel and sophomore 2-meter John Holland-McCowan combined for the first two goals of the third quarter to bring Harvard within striking distance, St. Francis’s early lead and consistent play proved insurmountable.

After the Crimson’s two scores to open the third, the Terriers connected before the end of the period and scored five of the game’s eight fourth-quarter goals to seal their victory.

“They jumped on us early, and we battled back,” Minnis said. “We got it back to two in the middle of the third, but we had some defensive breakdowns, and they scored some goals, so...they capitalized on [our mistakes].”

St. Francis senior attacker Marko Gencic opened the Terriers’ Senior Day with a goal two minutes into the game, burying the ball cross-cage past junior goalie Jimmy Field.

Harvard was unable to get anything started offensively early in the game, and St. Francis, led by junior center Bosko Stankovic, took advantage by jumping out to an early 3-0 lead, which it never relinquished.

“I think that it was kind of a learning experience for us,” Field said. “We’ll definitely focus on defense and keeping the intensity up overall.”

Zepfel, Holland-McCowan, Lee, and junior attacker Will Roller led the Crimson’s offense, each scoring two goals.

With its win against Harvard, the Terriers grabbed the second-place spot in the CWPA North Division.