Men's Water Polo Follows Close Loss to Brown with Two Victories

Harvard coach Ted Minnis paced up and down the side of the pool, barking orders and play calls to his starting six.

In his sixth season at the helm, Coach Minnis understood the importance of Harvard vs MIT men’s water polo games better than anyone on his team. His efforts were ultimately rewarded as the Crimson capped off a successful weekend with a convincing 15-9 win over its crosstown rival.

After losing a close game to No. 13 Brown (8-3) on Saturday, Harvard (4-5) responded with dominant wins over Connecticut College (0-3) on Saturday night and MIT (3-3) on Sunday.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Minnis said. “MIT and us; since I got here, it has been a battle back and forth…. It’s all about getting better. We took a big step against Brown. To come out and keep that momentum up, and play at that intensity and that level was huge in this game against MIT.”

HARVARD 15, MIT 9

Harvard came out of the gates strong against MIT, jumping out to a 9-1 lead midway through the second quarter. The Crimson was led by the commanding presence of co-captain Ben Zepfel, who drew five kickouts and scored four goals.

Zepfel also managed to influence the game beyond what appears on the stat sheet, opening up space for the likes of junior defender Dan Stevens and senior attacker Blake Lee, who scored four and two goals respectively.

“[Zepfel is] a beast,” Minnis said. “There’s a reason people have to worry about him on defense. He’s explosive, he’s got great hands, he’s got great vision, and he just commands a lot of attention.”

The Harvard defense was troubled throughout the day by MIT senior Kale Rogers, who scored MIT’s first six goals of the game.

He could have had even more, but Crimson senior goalkeeper Colin Woolway stood on his head to deny Rogers from inflicting any further damage, making a couple of crucial one-on-one stops to maintain Harvard’s momentum.

“[Woolway] had 15 saves,” Minnis said. “He came up huge, played his best game of the year.”

A period of relaxed Harvard defending after halftime allowed MIT to creep back into the game, as the Engineers cut the lead to 10-5 midway through the third quarter—the closest the visitors would get from that point on.

Zepfel was there to stop the bleeding, scoring two goals 25 seconds apart to extend his side’s lead. MIT ended the game on a miniature run of its own, scoring three of the last four goals, but it was too late for the Engineers to do any serious damage to the Crimson defense.

HARVARD 17, CONNECTICUT COLLEGE 5

After dropping its first game of the weekend, the Crimson came back to route the Camels, picking up its first CWPA Northern Division win in the process.

Harvard raced to a 17-5 win over Connecticut College, as junior Viktor Wrobel recorded a team-high three goals. The Crimson received contributions from many sources, with 12 different players finding the back of the net on a night when the offense was firing on all cylinders.

Woolway and classmate Connor Denney split time in between the sticks, combining to allow a season-low five goals.

BROWN 10, HARVARD 9

The first game of the day on Saturday proved to be an instant classic, with Harvard dropped, 10-9, in overtime to Brown.

After being down 5-2 at the half, the Crimson made a furious comeback in the third quarter—led by a hat trick from senior attacker Noah Harrison—to tie the game at seven apiece.

While the Bears seized a 9-8 lead with 45 seconds left, senior Blake Lee’s 7-meter backhand with time expiring tied the game up at nine, forcing it into overtime.

Harvard was unable to score in the extra frame, however, as a deflected shot got past Woolway in the dying moments of overtime to seal a Brown victory.