NO. 13 SANTA CLARA 17, HARVARD 2
Santa Clara was the highest ranked team on Harvard’s schedule, and the Broncos certainly played like it in the teams’ matchup early yesterday morning.
With the Crimson clearly exhausted, both physically and mentally, from a pair of tough games the night before, the Broncos quickly tallied up a substantial lead and wouldn’t let up against their outmatched foe.
“They really wore us down early,” Voith said. “But there’s no reason any team in the country should be able to score 17 goals on us.”
With few bright spots in the decisive loss, Harvard could only move on and try to build up its defense in time to face its next opponent.
NO. 18 PRINCETON 14, HARVARD 9
Although the final score may not show it, the Crimson played some of its best water polo all season against the Tigers at home on Saturday night.
With Voith, junior co-captain Luka Babic, and senior Jeff Lee leading the team in scoring, Harvard had the lead at the first two breaks in play.
“I think [Saturday] was the best they’ve played since I’ve been here,” Minnis said. “The way we played in the first half against Princeton was just amazing.”
The Crimson’s defense, including senior goalkeeper Alexandre Popp, looked strong going into the latter part of the game, but it wasn’t enough to hold off a third-period scoring run by the Tigers.
With four more goals in the final period, Princeton came out on top with a five-goal margin.
NO. 17 CAL BAPTIST 15, HARVARD 12
It looked as though Harvard was down for the count in its first game of the weekend when Cal Baptist jumped ahead 7-1 in the first five minutes of play.
Thanks to goals from Eliot and Lee, the game’s top scorers, the Crimson was able to bring its opponent’s lead down to one in the third period.
But the Lancers were able to pull ahead again and handed Harvard its third defeat of the season.
“Obviously going 1-3 wasn’t our goal this weekend,” Voith said. “But we learned a lot about ourselves, and we’re very happy with the team that’s coming out of it.”
The Crimson is now preparing for its home debut next weekend against MIT at the ECAC Championships.
—Staff writer Madeleine Smith can be reached at smith21@college.harvard.edu.