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Harvard men’s water polo secured its position leading the NWPC after a pair of conference wins this weekend against Brown and MIT, continuing their five-game win streak heading into back-to-back tournament weekends.
This array of wins follows the Crimson only winning one match in its away tour against four Southern California opponents. Yet, once Harvard returned to conference play, it scored 21 against two of their opponents and overcame Princeton, the nationally highest-ranked team in their conference, by one goal.
“Our goal in both those games was to make a statement that we are a team capable to win a conference championship, regardless of what the outside noise around us says,” sophomore attacker Lukas Peabody wrote.
The Crimson’s offense scored 15 and 19 goals against Brown and MIT respectively, surpassing their high of 13 in California.
“We have struggled with injuries this season, so those three weeks off played a huge factor in us being able to get healthy and prepare for a tough conference slate. As well, we learned a lot about what we needed to work on from playing such tough competition,” Peabody wrote. “Seeing all the issues we needed to fix from those games gave our team huge motivation to get back to practice and fix the problems our coaches noticed.”
No. 17 Harvard men’s water polo (9-6, 4-0 NWPC) spoiled Brown’s (11-5, 2-3 NWPC) eight-game win streak at home. The Crimson defeated the Bears 15-12 in Providence on Saturday evening and extended its perfect conference record.
Peabody’s four goals in the final two quarters led the Northeast Conference’s highest-ranked team to victory as Harvard overcame a back-and-forth game powered by Brown goalie Dimitros Kratimenos’s 15 saves.
“Brown’s goalie played very well against us, blocking numerous really good goalscoring opportunities. However, throughout the whole game we were getting great looks in front of the cage, that we were confident we would eventually put away,” Peabody wrote. “We never strayed away from attacking, as we were getting into great positions, we just needed to put the ball away.”
In their first possession, Brown quickly transitioned, allowing senior center Illias Stothart, the Bears’ season leading scorer, to score. Capitalizing on Harvard’s offensive troubles, the Bears sent a deep pass to junior attacker Mac Berry for their second goal.
The Crimson soon maximized its advantages. Rotating around their offense during a power play, junior attacker Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan found space to score. Brown conceded a penalty 30 seconds later, and sophomore attacker Dean Strauser buried a skip shot.
Kratimenos diffused a one-on-one situation with a Harvard attacker, followed by a pair of blocks stalling the Crimson. Yet, offensively, Brown struggled to convert their opportunities, conceding turnovers to Harvard.
Strauser winded and launched a rocket outside shot to break the deadlock and give Harvard its first lead. A block by Harvard’s defense led to a wing attack, finding sophomore defender Tyler Hogan, before the Bears responded, shrinking the deficit to one.
Missed shots and a save from each team’s goalie led to sophomore utility William Girswold finding a powerful outside shot from the middle, tying the game with eight seconds remaining in the quarter.
Brown’s fifth goalscorer of the game, junior attacker Jaxson Tierney, converted a skip shot to open the second quarter. The Bears' defensive conglomeration forced a change in possession, leading Brown to score their second straight goal for a 6-4 lead.
Junior utility Jack Burghardt jammed a post shot past Brown’s defense. Kratimenos defended Brown’s cage against one-on-one situations, but Harvard’s defense responded accordingly and forced Brown’s turnovers and misses.
Freshman attacker Felix Pal eventually found space to slide past Brown’s defense, tying 6-6 at the half.
Strong defensive performances, including Kratimenos’s emphatic point-blank saves against fastbreaks and Peabody’s blocks anchoring the Crimson’s defense, continued. Brown broke the deadlock, starting a quarter with a two goal run for the third consecutive time this game.
Sogaard-Srikrishnan converted the Crimson’s second penalty, and Strauser patiently scored to tie the game with two minutes remaining. Brown and Peabody exchanged ricochet goals, but Peabody scored again with four seconds remaining in the quarter for a 10-9 lead.
In the final quarter, Brown developed momentum, poking holes in the Crimson’s defense for two rebounds shots, and Kratimenos saved Harvard’s third penalty attempt for a 10-11 lead. Peabody responded by scoring two consecutive goals, pushing Harvard ahead by one.
Patience rewarded the Crimson while turnovers depleted Brown’s time, gradually building a three goal-run.
Amidst Harvard’s retreat, Brown found their final goal. With the Bears all pushed up, in the final possession, the Crimson strided towards an empty net, firing the finishing goal.
Burghardt scored nearly a third of Harvard’s (10-6, 5-0 NWPC) goals against MIT (5-12, 1-4 NWPC) on Sunday, sailing the Crimson to a 19-14 victory past their foes across the Charles River.
The Engineers’ foul-ridden defense conceded six penalties, of which the Crimson capitalized and converted each one in their first home game since the end of August. Harvard and MIT each had eight different goal scorers.
Both sides exchanged a goal early. Senior center Adam Ivatorov quickly tapped in the ball for MIT, while Burghardt scored from the post.
For six minutes of the quarter, MIT embarked on a three goal-run. Sophomore attacker Derek Schaffer and freshman attacker Caspar Lightner scored without facing the Crimson’s strong pressure. Defensively, the Engineers swarmed Harvard's offense by sweeping and recollecting possession. Lightner, MIT’s leading scorer, slammed the ball into the cage off a power play for MIT’s 4-1 lead.
“We came out complacent, thinking we would be able to win just by showing up,” Peabody wrote. “But we quickly regrouped and realized that was not the case.”
“In each game, I felt we did a good job being resilient by not letting any outside factors get to us, but we need to do a better job of not putting ourselves in multi-goal holes,” Peabody added.
A timeout in the quarter’s final minute repositioned Harvard. Hunt found Burghardt for a backhanded goal. The Engineers’ penalty miss allowed junior attacker Jacob Tsotadze to cruise toward the cage, closing the Crimson’s deficit to one.
Burghardt continued his scoring streak into the second quarter, sliding the ball past MIT’s goalie for his third. Another power play provided an opportunity to rotate and locate Ivatorov for a converted goal extending MIT’s lead.
Harvard’s first penalty, converted by Strauser, tied the game. Pal stole possession and drove up the left wing for a cross-pool pass and goal, the Crimson’s first lead.
For two minutes, both sides’ defense secured defensive dominance, before the teams exchanged two goals each. Harvard junior goalie Oliver Price recorded several blocks.
Senior attacker Mason Hunt assisted Burghardt’s fifth, and Sogaard-Srikrishnan converted Harvard’s third penalty for a 10-8 lead heading into the half.
Harvard piled a five goal run on the Engineers’ defense for five minutes, and MIT struggled to advance, limited to circling the perimeter. Following another Harvard penalty conversion, Kim scored his own, then assisted Burghardt’s curl shot.
Time came to the Crimson’s advantage, with Hogan driving down the pool to score, alongside freshman attacker Emil Sogaard-Srikrishnan converting a skim shot. MIT junior utility Rick Lundh broke the Engineers’ drought, but Pal responded with Harvard’s fifth penalty conversion.
Firm defense forced Harvard’s turnovers, and the Engineers’ physicality landed two skip shots, ending the third quarter 16-11.
Yet again, the Engineers’ foul troubles conceded a sixth penalty. Schaffer slipped a shot for MIT, but Burghardt completed another goal by splitting past the defense.
The Crimson’s perimeter isolation milked the clock, and the Engineers’ defensive pressure allowed them to skim through and score their two final goals.
Steady defense from Harvard and high pressure from MIT diffused further attacks, ending the game at 19-14.
“Despite this slow start we were able to overcome and pull out the victory due to our resilience and our ability to stay the course,” Peabody wrote. “We never let the scoreline or the other team get in our heads, and just continued to try and string together successful possessions, which eventually led to our victory.”
Harvard men’s water polo heads into the Harvard Tournament this upcoming weekend against Wagner College, Salem University, and George Washington University, followed by the Julian Frazier Memorial Tournament in Santa Clara the weekend after.
Afterward, the Crimson will seek to defend their leading position, playing another set of matches against all five NWPC opponents to start November.
“We have done our best in the first five conference games to show that we are not entitled to anything and we will have to work for every win. One main lesson I think we have taken from this first round of conference games is that we can’t let our highs get too high or our [lows] get too low,” Peabody wrote. “Making sure we stay focused mentally in every game and not getting complacent will be a major factor to our success for the rest of our season.”
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