Women's Water Polo Drops 4 of 5 in California

While the Harvard women’s water polo team’s annual spring break trip to California served as a homecoming for more than half of the squad, it was not an entirely joyous occasion for the Golden State natives, as the team went 1-4 for the week.

Despite the losing record, the scores of the games, two of which were against top-20 teams, demonstrated the team’s strong progress.

“We played [UC] Santa Barbara really closely and UC Irvine really closely,” co-captain Devan Kennifer said. “We played our hearts out.... Hopefully, that attitude will carry into our East Coast play. The East Coast teams aren’t nearly as hyped up, so hopefully we can get that advantage over them now that we’ve played on the West Coast.”

NO. 6 UC IRVINE 15, HARVARD 8

The Crimson (9-9, 1-1 CWPA Southern) stuck with the Anteaters (17-5) for most of their game, bringing the score within two goals at the end of the third. But Harvard could not manage to hold on in the final frame and allowed eight Irvine goals in just a few minutes.

“Our game against Irvine was a breaking point actually,” said Kennifer, who led the team in goals with a hat trick. “We were a lot more mobile than we had been in the past. By changing up our style of play, [they] didn’t know what to expect.”

Harvard’s defense shined throughout the first three quarters, thanks in large part to the play of freshman goalie Ariel Dukes, who tallied 13 saves.

Harvard knotted the score at three as late as the start of the second half.

CAL BAPTIST 12, HARVARD 10

On Saturday morning, in one of many close games for the week, the Crimson helped establish a name for East Coast water polo against one of California’s top teams.

Six Harvard players scored, with junior attacker Aisha Price leading the squad with four goals.

In her dominant middle quarters, Price helped the Crimson engineer a large comeback and take a 9-8 lead early in the fourth.

But Harvard struggled to seal the deal. The Crimson fell apart in the closing quarter as Cal Baptist (14-8) went on a 4-0 run to bring its total to 12 goals.

LONG BEACH STATE 10, HARVARD 5

Harvard suffered arguably its toughest loss of the weekend on Friday, falling by the second widest margin of the trip to one of the week’s lowest ranked teams.

Both squads traded goals in the first frame, tying the score at two going into the second quarter. But that was the last time the score would remain close.

Long Beach State (8-10) shut out the Crimson for the remainder of the second frame, and the 49ers offense held strong as it continued to pull away in the second half.

HARVARD 15, WHITTIER 4

Harvard earned its sole taste of victory during the week on Monday, routing Whittier (9-10) in a decisive 15-4 win.

Following a slow first quarter for both sides, the Crimson finally began to pick it up by the second quarter and built up the score from a 1-1 tie to a 5-2 lead by halftime.

Harvard continued to pull away in the second half, scoring 10 more goals.

Ten players saw the back of the net in yet another showing of the depth of the Crimson’s roster.

NO. 16 UC SANTA BARBARA 10, HARVARD 9

Harvard proved its worth in its debut California game on March 11, dropping its game against UC Santa Barbara (14-10) by one goal.

The Gauchos shut out the Crimson in the first quarter, climbing to a quick and early 3-0 lead.

But rather than turn over and take a beating from a top-ranked water polo powerhouse, Harvard responded with a 3-0 run of its own in the proceeding quarter, even knotting the score, 4-4, by halftime.

UCSB again went on a 3-0 run to launch the second half, but this time, it was too much for the Crimson to overcome.

Harvard battled back throughout the remainder of the half but was unable to reclaim any sort of lead.

—Staff writer Patrick Galvin can be reached at pgalvin@college.harvard.edu.