Camels No Match for Crimson

Finding itself once again in the friendly confines of Blodgett Pool, the Harvard men’s water polo team fired on all cylinders en route to a 14-4 victory over visiting Connecticut College.

The Crimson (10-8) launched an audacious aquatic assault on the unsuspecting Camels, as nine different Harvard men found themselves on the scoreboard, including freshman David Roncarolo de Vries, who recorded the first goal of his collegiate career.

Harvard cruised to a blistering pace in the first quarter, shutting out its opponents and taking an early 6-0 advantage. Junior netminder Jay Connolly, who recorded 12 saves on the night, held Connecticut College scoreless until well into the second period.

“He’s always been of the nation’s best goalkeepers,” head coach Erik Farrar said. “As our last line of defense, it’s good to have someone like that in the net.”

With the pressure mounting off the heels of consecutive Camel goals to cut the lead at five, Conn. College coach JJ Addison was ejected from the game for dissent towards the end of the second period.

The ejection served as a precursor of things to come, as the Crimson relentlessly blitzed the Camel net in the third quarter, scoring six unanswered goals to push the lead to an insurmountable margin.

Junior David Tune led all scorers with three goals, and Bret Voith, Michael Byrd, Jeff Lee, and Dan Furman all contributed two goals each to Harvard tally. Freshman Alex Thompson drew four ejections and recorded two assists, following the lead of senior co-captain Chris Ludwick, who also tallied two assists. Sophomore Sean Mitchell wrapped up the scoring with a goal and assist of his own to give the Crimson a comfortable victory.

While the Camels weren’t as strong of an adversary as some of Harvard’s earlier opponents, the Crimson stayed focused and used its depth to win impressively at Blodgett.

“You can never look past any opponent,” Farrar said. “You have to focus on the game at hand. It was great to see some unselfish play out there and [this game] was useful for the second unit to get some valuable experience.”

Now riding a three-game winning streak and improving its season record to 10-8, Harvard awaits a daunting final stretch to close out their season. The Navy Invitational this weekend features several strong opponents, including a Princeton squad that bitterly defeated the Crimson a year ago by one goal at the Eastern Championships.

Sandwiched between the Navy Invitational and back-to-back regional tournaments is a critical home date against Brown that could set the tone for the last two weeks of the season.

“If we have aspirations of contending at Easterns, we have to do well against these next teams [at the Navy Invitational],” Farrar said. “It’s the first time we will have played against all of the top teams in the Southern Division.”

“We purposely organized a tough schedule this season and we have several big competitions coming up, but I believe we are well prepared to face them,” Farrar added.

After going through a particularly difficult stretch that saw Harvard lose six consecutive games, the Crimson seem to have recovered, winning four out of its last five contests and now finds itself peaking at an ideal point of the season.

“We’re just on the cusp of getting on a groove as a team,” Byrd said. “[Our trip] to California exposed where we were weak and we’ve done a lot in practice to improve and get ready for the final games of the season.”

—Staff writer Mauricio A. Cruz can be reached at cruz2@fas.harvard.edu.