W. Water Polo Settles for Seventh Place at Easterns

Facing one of the tournament’s strongest fields in years, the Harvard women’s water polo team came back from the Eastern Championships this weekend with a seventh-place finish, losing to Princeton and Indiana before closing out its season with a victory over George Washington.

As a result of the unusual strength of all the teams in the tournament, the east region stands a chance of gaining two of the four bids to the NCAA tournament, instead of the customary one.

Brown came away with one of those berths by virtue of winning the tournament championship. Watching the Bears celebrate could only have been agonizing to the Crimson, which had defeated Brown 6-5 in its first game of the season.

Harvard 11, Geo. Washington 8

Whatever adjustments Harvard made after dropping its two matches Saturday worked on Sunday, as the Crimson led the Colonials from start to finish.

Co-captain Natasha Magnuson and sophomore Jane Humphries matched George Washington’s scoring total by themselves by tallying four goals each.

Harvard also notched three other goals to take the 11-8 victory and claim seventh place in the tournament.

Indiana 14, Harvard 8

After a lackluster opening quarter, Indiana torched Harvard in the second period, scoring eight times.

While poor communication was partly to blame for Harvard’s mid-game breakdown, questionable officiating also contributed to the disaster. Co-captain Jesse Gunderson fouled out with much of the game left to play.

In her absence, sophomore Tiana Peterson and junior Christine Meiers each had some success driving into two meters. Meiers drew four kick-outs while Peterson scored her third, fourth, and fifth goals of the tournament.

Magnuson also added two goals, but it was not enough to save the Crimson from a 14-8 loss.

After the Indiana game, Harvard held a team meeting to discuss different defenses, eventually deciding to tweak its system so that someone dropped back on the hole-set more.

Princeton 11, Harvard 7

In Harvard’s first game of the weekend, the Tigers dominated the Crimson in the first quarter, jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. Harvard was able to gain two of those goals back by halftime, but the Crimson still went into the locker room trailing 6-4.

Princeton shut out the Crimson again in the third quarter and scored three goals in the process to putA itself in a commanding position entering the final period.

There, despite a noble effort, the Harvard women ultimately succumbed, 11-7.

Gunderson led the Crimson against the Tigers, drawing four kick-outs. In addition, Peterson and Humphries each netted two goals for Harvard.

Humphries, along with teammate Jill Ono, deserves special credit for having played over the weekend. Both played on the team last year, but elected to focus on swimming this year instead. Injuries, though, kept the duo from participating in either sport most of the winter.

But when the Crimson found itself shorthanded after Anne Goldsberry broke her thumb and both Arianne Cohen and freshman Liz Anderson contracted mononucleosis, it turned to its former teammates, who came to the rescue and performed admirably throughout the tournament.

The team’s inspired performance in its lone win on Sunday proved bittersweet in the end, as it marked the final game in the careers of Gunderson and Magnuson.

Each has made a significant contribution to Harvard water polo over the past years, and the team’s primary task in looking to next season is to devise a strategy to overcome their loss.

That, though, is no easy task.

“They’re really going to be missed,” said Anderson. “They’re not easily replaceable.”