W. Water Polo Can't Quite Make it at Easterns

For the Harvard women's water polo team, the season came down to one game.

In the first day of the Eastern Championships on April 26, Harvard faced off against Bucknell in what both teams knew would be their most important match of the year.

Both squads were in the same tournament grouping, which also included Princeton and Slippery Rock--the defending national champion. It was pretty obvious that Slippery Rock would kill everyone, so the only other team that would go to the winners' bracket and have a chance to make Nationals would have to go 2-1 in the pool.

It was also pretty obvious that Princeton was weak, which made the Harvard-Bucknell game that morning the lone, deciding factor for which team would survive.

And it was Bucknell that took the initiative, storming out to an early lead that it never relinquished en route to a 7-4 Bison win.

That was about it for the Crimson. A loss to Slippery Rock, 21-0, and a 19-9 win over Princeton put Harvard into the consolation bracket. There, Harvard played well, defeating Villanova, 11-3, and a good UMass squad, 6-5, on a late goal by junior co-captain Missy Ford.

That gave the Crimson (12-4) a fifth-place finish at Easterns and a partial salvaging of the weekend.

"My only concern [after the Bucknell loss] was that they might fold," Harvard coach Maureen Travers said. "But they came right back. They were determined to show that our loss to Bucknell was not our true level of play."

Another disappointing part of Easterns was that the Crimson didn't get another crack at Brown. The Bears, who the Crimson defeated last year at Easterns to make Nationals, topped Harvard in the finals of the Northern Division Playoffs, the stepping-stone to Easterns.

Though both teams were assured of making Easterns, the 9-7 loss still hurt the Crimson. With the defeat, Harvard got a lower seed than it otherwise would have, and perhaps the Crimson wouldn't have gotten stuck in Slippery Rock's pool had it defeated the Bears, who made Nationals.

Next year, Harvard will have to do without goaltender and co-captain Cheryl Frank, as well as fellow seniors Ana Dujmovic and Laura Lederer. Dujmovic's absence will be particularly hard to cope with, as she is the Crimson's all-time leading scorer.

Harvard Sports Stats 1995-96

Women's Water Polo

Record: 12-4

Easterns Finish: Fifth

Head Coach: Maureen Travers

Captains: Cheryl Frank '96, Missy Ford '97

Other Key Players: Ana Dujmovic '96, Laura Lederer '96, Ann-Marie Sevcsik '97