Hailing from a suburb of Chicago, sophomore goalie Laurel McCarthy has stepped into the starting role this season to great success. McCarthy, shown here in earlier action, collected 15 saves in net during the Crimson’s 11-8 loss to No. 11 Hartwick in the team’s home finale last Saturday.

A quick glance through the hometowns of the players on the woman’s water polo team reveals a surprisingly high level of geographical uniformity: of the 16 players on the team, 10 of them are from the same state: California.

“For water polo, the bulk of the talent on the secondary level is in California,” Harvard coach Erik Ferrar said. “There are some good programs in Florida, and you get the occasional nugget out of Chicago.”

Care to guess how many “nuggets” are on the water polo team? Only one: sophomore goalie Laurel McCarthy from Oak Park, Illinois—a suburb of Chicago—who has been given an opportunity to shine this year in a new starting role for the Crimson.

McCarthy saw limited minutes as a freshman, stuck behind starting netminder Nicola Perlman ’09.

“She didn’t play much last year,” Ferrar said. “She sort of served as an apprentice last year, and she stepped very nicely into a starting role for us and she earned it. She was lights out against Brown and Hartwick the last time we played them.”

The game against the Bears on Apr. 15 involved an impressive 15-save performance from McCarthy that helped Harvard end a three-year winless drought against Brown.

“It was great to beat Brown,” McCarthy said. “Nobody on this team has beaten Brown in their time here. It was a win that we were really proud of as a team. Everyone played their role and everyone did a great job.”

Perhaps no player’s role is more important than the goalkeeper’s—the team’s last line of defense.

The goalie is the one player in the pool who can see all the action clearly and must inform her teammates about everything going on in the pool.

“Any goalkeeper is the rock on which you build the foundation of your defense,” Ferrar said. “She’s gotten pretty vocal and that can be a huge benefit to a field player. Especially if you’ve given up a bad transition situation, or the other team’s got a fast break, you take the word of the goalie and obey it without question.”

Jack Wagner, McCarthy’s coach at Fenwick High School, who also taught her to swim, described Laurel as “tenacious, unnerving, and outstanding.”

He also coached three of her older sisters, all of whom played water polo in college, including former Crimson goalkeeper Danielle McCarthy ’02.

Laurel had an impressive career at Fenwick High, serving as a team captain for three years and helping to lead the team to two Illinois state championships.

“Without a doubt she was a leader both in the pool and in the locker room,” Wagner said. “I’m not really sure which was harder to replace when she left, what she did for us in the water or what she did out of the water. Harvard got a really good player and a fantastic kid.”

How good? Look no further than a key save in the first half of the game against Brown, when McCarthy deflected a close range shot—just one of her many plays that helped to build a 3-2 lead going into the half.