Athlete of the Week: Andersen Leads Women's Water Polo in Scoring

For a water polo player, beating an opponent’s goalie in the pool offers a unique sense of accomplishment.

Yoshi Andersen, an attacker on the Harvard women’s water polo team (4-1), has felt that sense of accomplishment many times already this season. The sophomore has kicked off the year on a scoring tear for the Crimson and leads her squad with 20 goals through the team’s first five games of the season.

During Harvard’s three-game series at Princeton this weekend, Andersen again found success in the pool. In the team’s opening match win against the Virginia Military Institute on Saturday, Andersen led all scorers with five goals and added two assists to help the Crimson cruise to win, 16-6.

“The thing about Yoshi is how hard she works,” Harvard coach Ted Minnis said. “Whether it’s in-season or out-of-season, she always wants to get better and see that translate into her play. She’s a tremendous offensive threat. She shoots the ball extremely well.”

In Harvard’s second game on Saturday—a 13-12 overtime win against Iona—Andersen was a large presence in the pool, scoring three times and contributing two assists to boost the Crimson past the Gaels for the second time in two weeks.

“She’s done a great job for us every game,” Minnis said. “She’s a big time player. I think she’s played at every level from her national team to college now. She’s a very talented player and we’re lucky to have her on our team.”

Although Andersen did not score in Harvard’s 11-8 loss to Wagner on Sunday morning, she had a hand in five of her teammates’ goals to lead the Crimson in assists.

The success is not new for Andersen. Before arriving in Cambridge, she won a gold medal and earned MVP honors for Team USA at the 2012 UANA Junior Pan American Championship. Andersen attributes her most recent offensive outburst to the long hours she puts in both in and out of the pool toward improving her game.

“I think one thing that I try to do is work hard all the time,” Andersen said. “At practice I always try to get a little bit better.”

Last year, Andersen had a successful debut season for the Crimson, tallying 61 goals, 42 assists and 54 steals. She captured team Rookie of the Year honors and a CWPA Southern Division second-team selection.

“She works so hard, so I expect her to continue to grow as a player,” Minnis said. “Right now I think she’s just scratching the surface of what she can do. She’s such a talented player. I think the sky’s the limit for her, and it’s been fun to watch her mature as a player.”

With a year of collegiate experience under her belt, Andersen hopes to take on more of a leadership role for a squad that includes seven freshmen. For Andersen, being a leader involves exposing her teammates to a physical style of play during scrimmages and drills.

“I try to lead by example,” Andersen said. “It may seem like I’m being mean to my teammates in the water by being very aggressive, but I just want to get them to see that type of play, and I think that being aggressive against each other helps us prepare for the really physical games like the one we just had against Wagner and Princeton and all the other really physical teams that are out there.”

While Andersen has raced out to significant individual numbers through the season’s first five games, she recognizes that the months ahead will represent a learning curve as the Crimson incorporates its new players into its system. During practices, she looks forward to the team’s spring break series on the West Coast, where the young team will be tested in the crucible of elite competition.

“When we go to California and face even better opponents like UCLA and UCSB, those are the meetings that I think about when we work out every day to make sure my teammates and [I] are prepared for those kinds of physical games,” Andersen said. “We all push each other incredibly hard in practice; I think that’s why we’re going to get a lot better as a team this year goes on.”

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikvalles@college.harvard.edu.