The Harvard women’s water polo team faced a daunting logistical task over spring break—nine games in seven days while picking up about 5000 frequent flier miles in between.
The Crimson (14-11) started out strong, sweeping Marist and Siena last Saturday in Providence, R.I., before drubbing Utica that evening.
Harvard was back in action two days later splitting a double-header in California with a loss to No. 13 UC Davis and a win over Redlands. The Crimson fell to 1-2 on the West Coast trip following a 6-5 loss to No. 20 Cal Baptist on Wednesday.
Three days later, Harvard was back where it had started—in Providence, R.I. for the ECAC Championships. After an opening round loss to George Washington in overtime, the Crimson dropped its next two contests—all three losses coming by only a combined four goals—and finished in eighth place.
“[Playing this schedule] was not only psychologically but also physically challenging,” said junior two-meter Teresa Codini. “We didn’t have any energy left, and we lost to teams we shouldn’t have lost to.”
Despite the disappointing finish, Teresa Codini was named to the ECAC All-Tournament Second Team.
BUCKNELL 4, HARVARD 2
For the third time this season, Bucknell (12-15) and Harvard found themselves locked in a tight battle—this time in the seventh-place game of the ECAC Championships.
The Crimson mustered just two first half goals with senior two-meter Liz Anderson scoring a four-meter and sophomore driver Sarah Kennifer tipping a ball home during a 6-on-5 advantage.
The Bison answered with two first half goals of their own, but the 2-2 halftime score was well off the scoring pace of these teams’ two earlier matchups this season.
Both defenses clamped down even further in the third, as the period passed by scoreless. Bucknell broke the scoring drought in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead and then added another goal late in the quarter to ice the game.
“We had a couple shots that were arguably close and might have even gone in,” said sophomore two-meter Molly Mehaffey. “We were also trying to run offenses that we haven’t worked on in practice.”
The two squads split the earlier matchups with the Bison taking the teams’ last meeting at home in overtime 10-9 and the Crimson taking the teams’ first meeting at Princeton, 9-7.
WAGNER 5, HARVARD 4
After dropping its opening contest to George Washington in the ECAC Championships, the fourth-seeded Crimson squared off against eighth-seeded Wagner (11-13) for the right to compete in the fifth-place game.
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