Men's Water Polo Upsets No. 14 St. Francis

Harvard men’s water polo started its conference play schedule by taking two of three away games, including an upset of No. 14 St. Francis on Sunday. In the other two games, the Crimson (4-8) beat Fordham, 15-5 and lost to Iona 18-16 in double overtime.

“Overall, the team is pumped because we beat St. Francis in their pool, which hasn’t been done in quite a while,” co-captain Jimmy Field said. “It was a good win in a lot of ways because we were coming off of a tough loss.… It was nice to rebound and regroup with the win.”

HARVARD 14, ST. FRANCIS 11

In the final game of the weekend, Harvard gave the Terriers their first loss in their home pool since 2005. Additionally, the Crimson snapped its 16-game losing streak to St. Francis that goes all the way back to 2002.

“We were just coming off the loss against Iona, knowing we could’ve won, and we really wanted to come out with a winning record after our loss,” Field said.  “We went out there and gave it our all, and worked well as a team.”

The second half was the difference maker in this contest, as Harvard, which was down by one at the end of the first, tallied six goals in the third to take a 12-10 lead. The Crimson went 2-1 in the final quarter to ultimately seal the game.

The first half of the game had a different tone, as Harvard stayed consistently one goal behind St. Francis. Though down, the Crimson managed to keep the game close, which allowed it to come on strong in the second half.

Harvard got especially strong play from sophomore Noah Harrison (5 goals, 2 steals), followed by freshmen Joey Colton and Viktor Wrobel and sophomore Blake Lee, who also chipped in with two goals apiece.

“There are definitely individuals who had played well, but what we did when we were successful is that we had great team defense and great team offense,” Field said. “On the stat sheet you’re going to have people who played statistically well, but what allowed us to do well this weekend was a team effort.”

IONA 18, HARVARD 16 (2OT)

In a game that featured seven ties and seven lead changes, Harvard ultimately faltered in the second overtime session, ceding victory to the Gaels.

Both teams scored once in the first overtime, resulting in a 16-16 tie that forced the game into the second overtime. Then, Iona’s leading scorer Jake Lloyd scored two goals, and the Gael defense smothered a 6-on-5 Crimson advantage in the final minute to seal the game.

The largest lead of the game came at the end of the first quarter by Iona, with a 5-2 advantage.

Harvard fought back hard, eventually tying the game at 12-12 at the end of the third quarter. Eventually, the Crimson took a 14-12 lead with 4:12 left, but Iona responded in strong fashion, scoring three goals in a span of a little more than one minute.

Harvard ended up tying the game with 2:50 left, and both teams remained scoreless for the rest of the final quarter.

“It was back and forth for a while; they scored at the right time,” Field said. “We just weren’t able to execute as we would have hoped in the overtime period.”

HARVARD 15, FORDHAM 5

The Crimson commanded the game against the Rams from the opening minutes of the game, gaining control of a 5-0 lead in the first quarter and never looking back.

“We just got off a strong lead, and coming off of last week, we just really wanted to come out strong,” Field said.

Harvard was led by sophomore Ben Zepfel and freshman Dan Stevens, who each scored three goals.

The team’s strong weekend pushes the Crimson’s record to 4-8 overall (2-1 in CWPA Northern) and gives them momentum for next week’s games at home against Connecticut College, Brown, and cross-town rivals MIT.

“We definitely fought hard this weekend,” Harrison said. “We knew coming in that these would be really big games for us, with where we were in the season and with how the beginning of the season went. We came in with the right mentality.”