With just 18 seconds left in the first game of the Eastern Championships, co-captain Rick Offsay and senior John Lynch gave the Harvard men’s water polo team the chance to take home first, second or third place with a timely block against Salem International. The block allowed the Crimson to take the game 9-8, and move on to the semifinals of the Easterns for the first time since the seniors were freshman.

Though they came up short, losing to Princeton and Navy, and took fourth place in the tournament, the players left Bucknell with a sense of pride as their season came to a close.

“Our goal had been to make it to Easterns,” Offsay said, a feat Harvard has not been able to accomplish for the past two years.

The seniors, and particularly Offsay, played extremely well in their final contests against the best teams in the East. Offsay scored one shy of half the team’s total goals on the weekend, while Mike Gerrity netted four and Lynch and Greg Marvin-Smith added one each—accounting for 14 of the 17 team goals.

“Our seniors are very good, and it’ll be tough losing them,” sophomore John Voith said. “But they set a precedent in terms of showing us what we can do next year.”

Whether or not the team would even make it to Easterns was dubious at the start of the season with the team’s shaky play, and its chances were jeopardized once again after some injuries.

“It would’ve been easy for us to get down on ourselves, but we trained really hard for the last three weeks,” Offsay said. “I have never been prouder of a team. They’re a great group of guys, not only from a team standpoint, or a water polo standpoint, but just a great group to be with.”

NAVY 10, HARVARD 5

The Crimson picked itself up after its tough loss to the Tigers to face Navy in a contest that would determine third place at Easterns.

“We wanted to win one more for our seniors,” Voith said.

But while Harvard was able to keep the game fairly close in the early portion of the game, it lost its edge, allowing the Midshipmen to top the Crimson.

“We made mistakes they were able to capitalize on,” Offsay said.

In the first half, the Harvard defense was able to hold Navy to four goals. Unfortunately for the Crimson, the Navy defense was even stronger, keeping Harvard scoreless for 14 straight minutes.

“In the whole first half, we didn’t get off many shots,” Voith said. “You can’t score if you’re not shooting.”

When the Crimson’s offensive spurt finally arrived later in the game, it was too little, too late. Offsay contributed three goals, while Marvin-Smith and Lynch each tallied one apiece, a strong finish for their final Harvard water polo game.