Men's Water Polo Splits Weekend Series

­On a two-game road trip this past Sunday, the Harvard men’s water polo team (7-7, 4-3 CWPA) easily handled Connecticut College (0-8, 0-5), winning 16-7, but fell short at No. 12 Brown (13-3, 7-0), 16-12, in what amounted to a day of pretty familiar results.

Earlier this season, Harvard cruised past the Camels, 17-5, but lost a heartbreaker to the Bears, 10-9, on a deflected last-second shot in overtime. This time around, a seven-goal fourth-quarter rally against Brown still was not enough for the Crimson to pull off the upset.

“We played well, but we’ve got some work to do,” said sixth-year coach Ted Minnis. “We’re not peaking at this point.”

BROWN 16, HARVARD 12

The Crimson rode its balanced offensive and defensive effort against Connecticut College into Providence to face the Bears, taking a 4-3 first-quarter lead on goals by co-captain Ben Zepfel, junior defenseman Dan Stevens, junior co-captain Joey Colton, and freshman attacker Grayson Judge.

But Brown junior goalie Luke Weiser shut the game down after that, allowing only one more goal through the second and third quarters, frustrating the Harvard offense and enabling the Bears offense to go on a 9-1 run, at one point scoring seven goals in a row. Weiser finished the game with 17 saves.

Senior Crimson goalie Colin Woolway, meanwhile, was unable to stop the onslaught, recording only one save in the second quarter.

“We have to tighten things up defensively, especially on our help defense,” Minnis said. “We could use a little more work on our special teams.”

Down 12-5 heading into the final period of play, Harvard surged forward once again with another balanced attack, rallying with pairs of goals from Zepfel, Colton, and senior attacker Blake Lee, in addition to another from Judge, but the late surge fell short as Harvard was unable to overcome the deficit.

“We definitely don’t give up,” Stevens said. “Despite whatever the score says, we go out there and fight for the goal every single time.”

The Crimson’s leading scorer, senior attacker Noah Harrison, was kept off the scoreboard, but Zepfel, Colton, and Lee all ended the game with hat tricks.

For Brown, sophomore standout Tyler Kirchberg scored a game-high five goals, while junior utility man Warren Smith netted a hat trick.

The Crimson remains at .500 overall on the season, but the squad has won three of its last four and six of its last nine matches. The loss dropped Harvard to 4-3 in conference play ahead of its match against MIT and the Ivy championships next weekend.

“We’ll get some rest tonight, get back to practice early tomorrow, watch some film, and figure out where we need to tighten up our phases of the game,” Minnis said.

HARVARD 16, CONNECTICUT COLLEGE 7

In its first game of the day, Harvard raced out to a commanding 12-2 halftime lead, spearheaded by scoring from Zepfel—who entered the day as the team’s second-leading scorer—junior attacker Viktor Wrobel, and sophomore utility man Colin Chiapello.

“We executed on the offensive end,” Minnis said. “We did a good job of getting good shots off.”

The Crimson’s attack picked up where it left off after last week’s 22-score performance against Iona. Since its September 19th home win over Connecticut College, the Harvard offense has averaged a mark of over 14 goals per game.

The defense also contributed its fair share to the victory, holding the winless Camels to only three goals through the first three quarters. Over its last seven games, the Crimson has held its opponents to single digit tallies four times.

Shutdown defense also led to more breakaways the other way.

“Our counterattacks spurred our offense,” Stevens said. “They created a lot of great opportunities to score.”

Harvard led 5-2 at the end of the first quarter before pouring on seven more goals in the next frame. Meanwhile, the Crimson’s defense put up a zero-spot in the second quarter.

Harvard closed out the game after halftime, briefly extending its win streak to three games before its game against Brown snapped it.