Women's Water Polo Ends Spring Break Trip On Five-Game Losing Streak

Although the spring break destination was California, the Harvard women’s water polo team did not have all that much time to relax in the sun.

Faced with a tough schedule of eight games in eight days, the Crimson (13-9, 2-0 CWPA) amassed valuable experience in the pool, especially with five games coming against teams nationally ranked.

Harvard capped off its trip with three losses against No. 10 San Jose State, No. 2 Stanford, and No. 5 California.

“We all were thinking about water polo the entire trip, so I think playing back-to-back like that every single day was really tough for us,” sophomore Victoria Frager said. “But this is the toughest part of our season by far, so our next couple tournaments and Easterns [are] hopefully going to seem like nothing in comparison.”

CALIFORNIA 22, HARVARD 9

In its final game of the trip, the Crimson could not keep pace with No. 5 California (13-5) and fell, 22-9.

Losers of its last three against tough western competition, the Golden Bears sought to take control of the game early and scored eight goals in the first quarter to Harvard’s two. Senior Emily Csikos, who sits four goals shy of tying Cal’s all-time scoring record, contributed three tallies in the period to fuel the offense.

After a more subdued second quarter, the Golden Bears put up another eight spot on the Crimson in the third, while Harvard could only muster a single tally from co-captain Aisha Price.

The 22 goals allowed were the most the Crimson has surrendered the entire year.

Junior Shayna Price led the Harvard offense with four goals on the game, including two in a fourth period that saw the Crimson outscore Cal, 5-3.

“I know we were all worried at the beginning of the year seeing the strength of our schedule and how difficult it looked, but coming in this week we had some good wins to start us off,” Frager said. “And I think that gave us the confidence we needed to play hard against the better teams.”

STANFORD 18, HARVARD 5

The Crimson faced its toughest test of the trip in No. 2 Stanford (15-1), which relied on a consistent offense to cruise to an 18-5 victory.

A perennial powerhouse whose only loss on the season came to top-ranked USC, the Cardinal built a seven-goal lead at the half and added to the margin after the intermission.

Harvard’s strongest period came in the third, when Aisha Price, junior Jelena Cyr, and Frager each snuck the ball past the Stanford goalie. But the Cardinal responded with six goals in the same quarter to put the game out of reach.

Aisha Price was the leading scorer for the Crimson with two goals.

Eight different players found the back of the cage for Stanford. Freshman Maggie Steffens, who finished with four goals, had a hat trick before the first period ended.

Despite the loss, the game against some of the nation’s best talent provided Harvard with valuable experience.

“I think we’re really improving and learning a lot from the games we’re playing,” sophomore goalie Ariel Dukes said. “It’s been a really great experience so far.”

SAN JOSE STATE 18, HARVARD 8

The Crimson took on its least formidable opponent of the three-game stretch in the Spartans—but that’s not saying much, as San Jose State (16-6) sits at number ten in the national rankings. Despite scoring eight goals, Harvard could not keep pace with the Spartans and fell by a ten-goal margin.

San Jose State came flying out of the gates, scoring six goals in the first period and seven more in the second to take a 13-2 lead at the half.

Although the halftime deficit was too much to overcome, Harvard demonstrated resilience after the break and went on to outscore the Spartans, 6-5.

“The thing about this team is that it’s a really close-knit team,” Crimson coach Ted Minnis said. “They really like each other inside and outside the pool, and they’d do anything for each other…. Whatever they’re doing they’re giving their best because they don’t want to let their teammates down.”

A trio of players provided the brunt of the scoring for San Jose State. Sophomore Victoria Smith contributed a career-high five goals to lead all scoring, and two more Spartans added hat tricks.

Sophomore Kalina Grabb, the only Harvard player with multiple goals, supplied three tallies in the second half. Grabb also posted three steals to tie for team best.

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at dsteinbach@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @BigBach12.