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No. 19 Harvard men’s water polo (15-8, 5-0 NWPC) split its four final non-conference games at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament in Santa Clara, CA, this weekend, ahead of its five remaining conference games over the next two weekends.
The Crimson, currently the undefeated leaders of the NWPC through the first round of five games, entered the tournament weekend 1-5 against top 20 nationally-ranked opponents, with its only win coming against its conference rival, previously No. 12 Princeton University.
Harvard defeated its highest-ranked opponent of the season thus far, No. 9 Pepperdine University, on Saturday.
“I was happy with the weekend when I thought we battled,” Head Coach Ted Minnis said. “We had a one-goal game with the number seven team in the country and had an opportunity to tie the game at the end. We beat the number nine team in the country.”
“I thought we played a little bit more consistently on the defensive side of the wall. And I thought we did a really good job of moving forward play by play instead of just worrying about things we couldn’t control in the past,” Minnis added.
Junior utility Jack Burghardt led the Crimson’s goal-scoring in the tournament, netting 16 goals across the four games. Entering next weekend’s two conference games against MIT (5-15, 1-4 NWPC) and Brown (15-6, 2-3 NWPC), the Crimson have won 11 of their last 13.
No. 7 University of the Pacific 13, No. 19 Harvard 12
Harvard failed to complete a last-minute comeback against the Tigers, scoring two late goals within a minute but ultimately falling short 13-12 on Friday afternoon. With the loss, the Crimson snapped its eight-game winning streak in its third consecutive one-goal loss against Pacific.
Burghardt scored a third of Harvard’s goals in the team’s lowest scoring match since mid-September, while junior attacker Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan led the team with four assists.
The Tigers’ 4-1 run to start the fourth quarter proved decisive, as the Crimson struggled against Tigers’ freshman goalie Kiss Gergely, who recorded five of his 11 saves in the final quarter.
The Crimson conceded an early penalty and scored on the following back-to-back possession to open the quarter. Senior goalie Tanner Furtak recorded three saves early, and sophomore defender Tyler Hogan netted Harvard’s first on a powerplay.
Pacific converted their next two possessions, riding Gergely’s two saves, and forced the Crimson’s only other goal to be via sophomore attacker Dean Strauser’s power play conversion to end the first 2-4.
“We were down 4-2 at the end of the first. I thought we came out a little timid. We were a little tight and weren't really clicking on the offensive side of the ball; we were a little slow in our adult sequences,” Minnis said.
Tides proved level in the second quarter, with the Crimson and Tigers splitting it at three goals each. Sophomore attacker Lukas Peabody and junior utility Jack Burghardt, assisted by junior attacker Vilas Sogaard-Srikrishnan, scored and tied the game at 4-4. Pacific struggled for a few minutes, losing possession to Burghardt and freshman attacker Connor Kim.
Ultimately, the Tigers broke their deadlock with a 3-0 run, amidst Harvard’s turnovers and saved shots. With both teams struggling with turnovers, Burghardt received his second assist from Sogaard-Srikrishnan and closed the quarter at 7-5.
Harvard started a back-to-back quarter to tie the game, capitalizing on the Crimson’s defensive strength with two steals and two saves. The Crimson scored another for their first lead, but an exchange of two goals each followed, including a powerplay game for each team. For the 9-9 score, Sogaard-Srikrishnan recorded his third assist, while Burghardt secured his hat trick.
Defensive strength continued for the sides heading into the fourth, with Pacific’s three back-to-back stops leading them to reclaim the lead. Strauser responded soon after, but Gergely's four consecutive saves maintained the Tigers’ pulse on a 4-1 run with two minutes remaining.
As Pacific couldn’t convert its possessions, Hogan and Burghardt each scored within less than a minute to close the deficit to one. In the final seconds, Harvard’s final shot missed, leading the team to fall 12-13.
“On the defensive side of the ball, I thought when we came down to the end, we ran some seven on six, and we did a good job of executing those with 17 seconds left,” Minnis said. “I thought we did a really good job, and we got a really good look from Jack Burghardt. It just went a little wide.”
“So I was really happy with the way we battled and gave ourselves an opportunity to tie it at the end for overtime. We just came up a little short,” Minnis added.
Harvard 16, No. 9 Pepperdine University 15
The Crimson ended up on the opposite side of a one-goal deficit against No. 9 Pepperdine University, outscoring the Waves five to one in the fourth quarter for a 16-15 win. With its second victory against a Top-15 team, Harvard defeated its highest nationally-ranked opponent this season so far.
Strauser led the scoring with four goals, and Kim assisted a team-high of four goals. Burghardt, who also scored four, netted two in the fourth and prevented Pepperdine from maintaining their three-goal lead entering the final quarter.
“We weren't tight in any of the game. We did a good job of coming out and executing in those phases of the game, offense and defense, and we just battled for four quarters,” Minnis said. “So I was really proud of the way we played.”
The first quarter started off with a back-to-back nature, with the Crimson taking the first step off Strauser’s penalty conversion. Pepperdine responded twice in the following minute, before Peabody netted his answer.
Kim contributed to Harvard’s next three powerplay goals, assisting Hogan and Burghardt as well as scoring one of his own.
Two saves from Waves’ sophomore goalie Max Smirnov helped Pepperdine score two unanswered goals, including firing a shot with 25 seconds remaining to end the first quarter 5-6. Furtak also ended the quarter with two saves.
Although Strauser and Peabody scored early to hold a 7-7 tie against Pepperdine, possession loss proved costly for the Crimson. Repeated turnovers remained Harvard’s persistent problem through the quarter’s final five minutes, forcing the Crimson to dump the ball with the Waves tallying a 3-0 run.
Burghardt scored from a Peabody assist, and Peabody beat the goalie to close Harvard’s deficit at 9-11. Strauser completed his hat trick, and Kim assisted his third powerplay goal for senior attacker Mason Hunt.
Yet, the Waves’ offense wouldn’t shut down, either. Smirnov finished the final minutes with three saves, and Pepperdine’s offense led to another string of Harvard turnovers. A powerplay and a deep-pass assist from Smirnov himself kept the Waves ahead by three, 11-14, to end the third quarter.
Exchanged penalties marked both the start of Harvard’s five fourth-quarter goals and the end of Pepperdine’s scoring for the rest of the game. Burghardt piled in two goals and Hogan assisted Strauser’s four goals — all within the span of a minute and a half — to tie the game at 15-15.
The Waves had their turn of repeated turnovers amidst violations and shot clock expirations late into the game, and Sogaard-Srikrishnan scored a penalty with 2:35 remaining for what would be the final goal of the game.
Countering Smirnov’s final saves, a steal from Hogan and Harvard’s strong defense forced Pepperdine turnovers to compensate for the Crimson’s own and finished the game at 16-15.
“I think we did a good job of moving the ball, being patient,” Minnis said. “I think we converted our six on fives, which is something that you have to do well on the power play.”
“Defensively we walked in, and I thought in the second half, we did a really good job of really, winning our one on one battles on the left side of the pool, and that allowed it on the right side of the pool to not have to worry about that side of the pool, and our goalie not have to worry about that side of the pool. We were able to kind of dictate more where those shots were going to come from,” Minnis added.
Harvard 19, Air Force Academy 16
Harvard defeated its only non-nationally ranked opponent at the tournament 19-16 in back-to-back wins on Saturday.
The Air Force Academy, coming off a 23-9 victory against the University of California, Merced, earlier that day, suffered its only defeat in three tournament games against the Crimson.
Burghardt scored five, his personal high for goals in a single game at the tournament. Sogaard-Srikrishnan had a team-high of seven goal contributions, assisting five and scoring two, while Hogan and junior attacker Jacob Tsotadze each scored three.
Hogan scored a hat-trick in the final three minutes of the third quarter to maintain the Crimson’s three-goal lead heading into the fourth. Harvard maintained its three-goal advantage, slowly built through the third, to close out the game in the fourth quarter.
“I think in the third quarter, we did a good job of adjusting in the game to their movement,” Minnis said. “They do a good job of getting kind of cross movement going and getting some mismatches. Some people were open off of some screens, and we did a good job of fighting through instead of switching. And that made a big difference.”
30 seconds in, Burghardt received back-to-back assists from Sogaard-Srikrishnan for a 2-0 lead. After the Falcons converted a power play, the Crimson embarked on a 3-0 lead from Kim’s two goals, assisted by Hogan and Tsotadze, who converted a goal of his own, assisted by junior goalie Oliver Price.
Falcons’ senior goalie Luca Smith recorded all three of his saves to deter the Crimson in the first quarter, kickstarting a three-goal flyover for the Air Force. Tsotadze scored his second, and a Harvard turnover led to the Air Force’s fifth and final goal of the quarter at 6-5.
Tsotadze completed his hat-trick early in the second, which the Falcons responded to. The Air Force’s scoring took a nosedive until four minutes later, when the Falcons closed its deficit to one.
With both teams maintaining possession to stretch the clock, three goals came in the final two minutes. Staruser scored his first, but two from the Falcons, including a last-possession penalty shot, evened out the Crimson and Falcons at nine each.
Sogaard-Srikrishnan maneuvered past the goalie for his first goal and third goal contribution, while Price and Hunt denied the Air Force with saves and steals. Sogaard-Srikrishnan assisted Peabody, and Peabody continued the offensive train, assisting Strauser on the power play for the three-goal lead.
The Air Force struggled with the Crimson’s defense, breaking through with three minutes remaining, while Sogaard-Srikrishnan responded to assist his fourth to Strauser.
Both Harvard and the Air Force exchanged a set of three goals, led by Hogan’s hat trick on two power plays. Despite the Falcons dominating possession in the final two minutes, two exclusions and Price’s two saves closed the third quarter at 15-12 in favor of Harvard.
The final goals of the game came through three separate scoring runs for the teams, sandwiched between missed shots and Price’s saves. The Falcons went on a 2-1 run in the quarter’s first two minutes, until Burghardt scored two for Harvard’s 2-1 run and returned the Crimson’s three-goal lead.
“I think it came out to the game of runs. We pushed out to a three or four early, and then they came back to the lead that we pushed back out,” Minnis said.
Burghardt found the cage once more with 30 seconds remaining, and the Crimson slowed down the pace, only allowing the Air Force to net one more for the 19-16 win.
No. 17 Santa Clara University 16, Harvard 11
Harvard, once the No. 17-ranked team itself, fell against the No. 17 Broncos and lost by its largest scoring deficit since early September against then-No. 7 Long Beach State.
Burghardt once again led Harvard’s scoring in its 11-16 defeat with a hat-trick, with the remaining eight split among six Crimson players. Kim had a hat-trick of assists, his second of the tournament, while Furtak maintained a strong defensive performance in the cage, saving 12.
Over half of Harvard’s goals came from successful powerplay conversions, including a streak of three to minimize the Crimson’s deficit in the third quarter. The Broncos found success with two 3-0 runs, until Harvard closed in on a 10-10 tie early in the fourth. However, Santa Clara’s 5-1 run to finish the fourth quarter deflected Harvard’s opportunity for a comeback.
“It was the fourth game of the weekend against the home team. I think they played with a lot of energy, and they caught us on our heels for the first half, and we didn't execute well,” Minnis said.
The Crimson started off with three consecutive defensive stops, and Burghardt broke through with the first goal of the game. Hogan recorded two steals within two minutes, until Santa Clara bested Sogaard-Srikrishnan’s goal with a 3-1 run to the two-minute mark.
Struggling with consecutive offensive turnovers due to steals and shot clock expirations, the Broncos scored another, until Hunt closed the deficit to one at the quarter’s end.
Denied twice more at the cage by the Broncos’ goalie, Harvard conceded a 3-0 run to the Broncos throughout the first half of the second quarter. Takeaways from Santa Clara, Hogan’s third steal, and saves from Furtak and Broncos’ junior goalie Harrison Laborsse stalled scoring from both teams.
A powerplay helped Peabody break the drought with eight seconds remaining at 4-7, assisted by Strauser off a powerplay.
Another 3-0 run propelled the Broncos ahead to start the third quarter, until another powerplay brought Burghardt’s opportunity to score at 5-10. Harvard continued its streak of struggling to locate shots, due to an array of turnovers from conceded steals and mislocated passes.
“We had some unforced turnovers that were pretty uncharacteristic of us throughout the weekend,” Minnis said. “Once we settled down, we started working harder on the defensive side of the ball. We were able to go ahead and take control on the offensive side and execute.”
Kim held the defense for the Crimson for the next two minutes with a steal, assisting Sogaard-Srikrishnan and Tsotadze for two powerplay goals. Furtak denied two Santa Clara shots, and Burghardt completed his hat-trick to finish the third quarter down 8-10.
Peabody and Hogan scored two in two unanswered goals to tie the game at 10-10 with six minutes remaining. Furtak saved a shot, but Harvard turnovers and Labrosse’s saves provided the momentum for Santa Clara to power a 5-1 run to finish the game.
Labrosse went on to finish the game with nine saves, and Kim provided a temporary disruption to the Broncos' offensive momentum, which ultimately carried Santa Clara to a 11-16 victory.
Harvard faces off against MIT away and Brown at home in an NWPC doubleheader this Saturday.
“It's a big toll on your bodies to play four games. We won't have to play four games in the weekend again,” Minnis said. “What we learned is we're resilient. We're able to do the hard things, and if we get into a situation where we have to play extra water polo and over time, we're going to be fine.”
“I'm just excited to get into the second round of conference,” Minnis added. “That's what we play for — to do our best in conference and try to win a conference championship and get to NCAA. That's an exciting time of year coming up in November.”
