2-meter player Ben Zepfel was one of seven talented freshmen to join Harvard water polo this season. Zepfel, who led the team in goals with 78 over the season, was named the team’s Most Valuable Player for 2012.

The Harvard men’s water polo team had a rollercoaster ride of a season, going through both a nine-game winning streak and a nine-game losing streak on its way to a 15-19 record and a seventh-place finish in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Tournament in what was largely a rebuilding year for the Crimson.

“When you step back and consider that we graduated a class of five major contributors last year, we did quite well,” junior co-captain Will Roller said. “Our team was able to quickly integrate a class of seven freshmen and finish with a solid record.”

After starting the season just 3-5, the Crimson began to play some of the best water polo in Harvard’s history, winning nine games in just over two weeks and jumping out to a 12-5 record. The streak was the team’s longest since the 2002 season, when it won nine straight as well.

“We started doing a better job of understanding what we were trying to accomplish in the pool,” Crimson coach Ted Minnis said. “By the time we got into the middle of the season we were really playing Harvard water polo, and our guys understood what we were trying to do.”

But the streak came to an end in a close match against then-no. 14 Bucknell on Sept. 30, when Harvard dropped the second match of a doubleheader and proceeded to fall into a slump. The next week, the team traveled to California, where it faced some stiff competition that overwhelmed the Crimson.

Over the course of three days, Harvard lost five straight matches to California schools by an average margin of over six goals. Over this stretch, the team played against teams that would ultimately finish ranked fifth, seventh, and 13th in the CWPA poll.

Upon returning to the East Coast, Harvard fell to No. 16 Brown, No. 9 St. Francis, and No. 17 Mercyhurst in quick succession before heading into the Ivy League Championships.

“We hit a really tough stretch there in the last third of the season,” Minnis said. “We played some really quality games against some quality teams, but we finished strong.”

The Crimson managed to temporarily right the ship in the postseason, beating Penn in the first round but falling to Brown in the second game. The team lost to rival MIT, 15-14, in overtime during the Northern Division Championships, but came back to beat the Engineers in the final match of the season and finished seventh in the CWPA Eastern Tournament.

This was one of Harvard’s best seasons in years, as the team’s .441 winning percentage was its highest since 2007, but the Crimson is still looking to improve next year. Harvard loses only two seniors this year and returns seven highly talented rising sophomores.

“With seven players [in the freshman] class, everyone had to adapt to new roles,” Roller said. “Our leading scorer from the 2011 season and my co-captain, [senior] Max Eliot, willingly adopted a new role in the pool that didn’t necessarily benefit his personal statistics, but was in the best interest of the team.”

Eliot and his fellow senior, attacker Antone Martinho, will depart next year, but while the team will lose veteran leadership in 2013, it will look to improve nonetheless as its celebrated freshmen class continues to develop.

This year, Harvard’s top three leading scorers were freshmen, and its top eight scorers will be returning for next season. The Crimson will look for these players to continue to step up and lead in the pool next year.

“There are impact players,” Roller said. “But I think it’s better to describe them as an impact class. I could not have been more proud of all of the freshmen. They brought speed, energy, and an attitude that enabled us to do so well, and will allow us to continue doing well going forward. I am eager to see what we can do next year, but also how the program develops as this class moves through it.”

“I think next year we are looking to be playing in the championship game at our Northern League championship,” the co-captain added. “This is very achievable with the existing team and when you consider the new freshman that will be joining our program next year, I am very confident that you will be seeing even more improvement from us.”

—Staff writer Theo Levine can be reached at tlevine@college.harvard.edu.