Men's Water Polo Takes One of Three at Princeton Invitational

Engaging in a battle of the East Coast and the West Coast this weekend, the Harvard men’s water polo team traveled to DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, N.J. to participate in the Princeton Invitational against the Tigers and a trio of California teams.

“I love playing these ranked teams, particularly from California,” junior two-meter defender Dan Stevens said. “Because first, we don’t get the opportunity to play them that much, and second, they bring a level of talent that you don’t see as often on the East Coast. So we were fired up to play them.”

The Crimson (2-4) faced off against Santa Clara (2-3), No. 11 Princeton (4-1), and No. 5 Pacific (8-1). The team also played an exhibition game against Diablo Valley (3-1) on Sunday morning, which it dropped by a score of 21-18.

HARVARD 16, SANTA CLARA 12

Harvard finished the weekend on a high note with a win over Santa Clara—its second victory of the season and its first win in eight games against the Broncos.

Heading into the second quarter with a 4-3 lead, the Crimson watched as co-captain Ben Zepfel took over. Zepfel scored three goals in the frame, helping extend his side’s advantage to three goals at the half.

Harvard’s other co-captain, junior attacker Joey Colton, helped to get the attack going in the first quarter with two scores of his own. Freshman attacker Nick Bunn and senior attacker Blake Lee also recorded goals in the opening frame.

The Broncos retaliated in the second half, but the Crimson never lost control of the lead. Bunn and Lee finished with four goals apiece, and senior attacker Noah Harrison had two goals, three assists, and five steals. Rookie goalie Anthony Ridgley made 11 saves in the win.

PRINCETON 16, HARVARD 12

Saturday evening, Harvard returned to the pool following its matchup with Pacific for the nightcap against the other Tigers from Princeton. The Crimson kept the score much closer in its second game of the day, putting up more of a fight against the more familiar Tigers.

“They’re fighters, so we knew they were going to give us everything they had,” Princeton sophomore attacker Ryan Hammarskjold said.

Harrison led the offense with a hat trick, giving him four goals in addition to five assists on the day. Lee also scored and led the team with a game-high three assists.

The Princeton side was led by senior center Thomas Nelson and freshman driver Michael Swart, who had four goals apiece. Nelson also drew two ejections to help his team maintain a three-two scoring edge.

“I think it was really good for our offense to really just read what was happening in the pool and react to that instead of trying to force plays,” Hammarskjold said.

PACIFIC 21, HARVARD 6

Harvard dropped its first game of the weekend against Pacific. The Crimson got off to a slow start, with Stevens scoring the only goal of the opening quarter. Meanwhile, the Tigers scored a pair of 6-on-5 goals in the first two minutes of the game before tacking on three more by quarter’s end.

Harvard’s offense improved as the game went on as Bunn, Lee, Harrison, and the freshman duo of Grayson Judge and Grant Harvey all found the back of the net. However, the effort was not enough to stop the Tiger offense, led by junior Aleksandar Petrovic’s four goals and senior attacker Krisztian Laczkovic’s hat trick.

“Typically the way we play against some of these really good teams is… we will start off playing very well with them, and then what’s happened is that they kind of run away with it,” Stevens said. “And one of the things that we need to focus on is maintaining that same physicality and mentality at the beginning of the game, throughout the game.”

—Staff writer Katherine H. Scott can be reached at katherine.scott@thecrimson.com.