In the first home games of its 2014 campaign, the Harvard women’s water polo team (7-2) was able to build on its winning record behind strong performances from younger players. After dropping the first Saturday contest to Wagner, the Crimson came back with three straight wins against Sienna, Villanova, and Iona to close out the weekend.

HARVARD 13, IONA 7

In the third match up between the two teams this season, the Crimson sealed the sweep of the series behind a dominant offense.

Previously, both games against Iona had gone into overtime, but Harvard was able to put Sunday’s game away in regulation.

“We’ve always known we’re the better team, and the times we’ve gone into overtime, we let them come back and let them hang around with us,” freshman Michelle Martinelli said. “This time we had the mindset that we weren’t going to let them do that, and we were successful.”

The Crimson started the game off steadily with a 4-1 lead towards the end of the first quarter. But before the half was over, the Gaels scored three goals to bring themselves within one at halftime.

Late in the third quarter, Iona had the opportunity to tie the game at seven off of a steal, but a block from sophomore Yoshi Anderson allowed the Crimson to maintain its lead and momentum in the game.

For the remainder of the match, Harvard fended off the Gaels’ offense and went on a 6-1 run to earn the victory.

“You see an improvement from two weeks ago to where we are today,” Harvard coach Ted Minnis said. “We came back from Princeton, we trained really hard, and we worked on some things. And the things we worked on to try and get better, we did [improve].”

HARVARD 14, VILLANOVA 7

After a game that began 1-1, Harvard pushed forward and went on a 7-0 run, leading, 8-1, with less than five minutes left in the first half.

“I think our five-on-six percentage was better, I think we did a better job on our drive defense, and we minimized the number of times we got ejected,” Minnis said.

In a play that cemented the Crimson’s lead, Anderson went one-on-one against the Wildcat goalie and was able to bounce a shot into the back of the net, putting Harvard up, 11-2.

Villanova did not give up towards the end of the first half, outscoring the Crimson, 5-3, down the stretch. A blocked shot by freshman Lexi Del Toro aided Harvard’s ability to seal the victory and come out on top.

HARVARD 19, SIENNA 8