“We’re really good at overtime, but we need to push through to get to overtime,” Smith said. “It obviously is better to beat them before the overtime decision, but I would have felt confident [that] if we had gone into overtime, the score would have been different.”
This rubber match began with a splash as Molnar opened the scoring for Harvard 1:31 into the game, followed by a goal from Bucknell 21 seconds later.
“There are things that we did wrong, but for the most part, we all played a really good game,” Smith said. “Especially at the start of the Bucknell game, we were still rolling off of that energy [from Michigan], but it wasn’t enough apparently.”
The Crimson trailed, 10-8, with seven minutes left on the clock before the Bison went on the attack, netting a goal less than a minute later. After Harvard pulled within two, sophomore Monica Zdrojewski brought the deficit to one midway through the period, but Bucknell had one goal left in it, ultimately taking the game, 12-10.
NO. 7 MICHIGAN 18, HARVARD 10
The weekend began with the toughest game for Harvard, as the squad faced the tournament’s top seed, No. 7 Michigan, for the first time this year.
“That was the best we had ever played them—we scored 10 goals,” Molnar said. “I don’t think many teams have, especially in our conference.”
The first period ended tied at three, but as the next eight minutes played out, the Crimson’s defense began to fall apart, while the Wolverines’ offense took control, scoring nine goals to Harvard’s three.
“The third and fourth quarters were good water polo, water polo worth watching,” Molnar said. “It was the second quarter that killed the game for us.”
The Crimson tallied one more goal in the third period and three more in the fourth, but even with sophomore goalkeeper Laurel McCarthy’s six saves, it was not enough to keep Michigan from taking the victory, 18-10.
“I’d say we had some moments of brilliance, and moments when any normal team would have thought it was fine, but our team knew we could do better than we did,” Smith said. “[Overall it was] a very strong weekend and season that will hopefully build for something better next season.”
—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.