Harvard Men’s Water Polo Closes First Round of Conference Play With Four Straight Wins

RV Harvard men’s water polo closed out its first round of conference play on a four-game winning streak, capping off its second weekend with a win over No. 19 Brown and scoring its most goals of the season against MIT.

The Crimson (7-10, 4-1 Northeast Water Polo Conference) began its season with a difficult schedule, losing to top-20-ranked opponents before securing a 17-13 win over Johns Hopkins to snap its seven-game losing streak.

Harvard then fell to No. 9 Princeton — which has won five straight NWPC championships — in its opening match before rebounding to beat its next four opponents.

“We’ve done a lot of good work trying to fix some of the things that didn’t go well for us in our non-conference schedule, and continue to do the things that went well for us,” head coach Ted Minnis said. “I’ve talked all year long about this being a process and not being result oriented.”

“That’s how they’ve really come in and locked in the last couple of weeks: just one possession at a time and not so focused on what the outcome is,” he added. “We’re making sure we’re taking care of each possession and really locking in defensively.”

Meanwhile, the Crimson also welcomed back freshman attacker Clay Carrington, the NWPC Rookie of the Week — to its offensive rotation for its final two matches — who missed the opening contests to represent the United States in the PanAm Aquatic U19 Championship, where he was named the tournament’s MVP. He joined freshman attacker Synnove Robinson, who represented the United States women’s team and won a gold medal.

“I support everything they do in and out of the pool, and that’s an important piece to what our program is about,” Minnis said. “When Clay came to me and was thinking about this, I said, ‘Look, 100 percent, I’m going to support you. Either you go, or you don’t go, and no one’s going to think any different if you go.’”

“He wants to go to Junior Worlds next summer, and this was a good opportunity for him to take a step to make that team,” he added.

Across the five matches, junior attacker Dean Strauser led with 15 goals, followed by sophomore attacker Connor Kim and senior utility Jack Burghardt, who each scored 14.

No. 9 Princeton 15, Harvard 8

The two Ivy League teams split their conference matchups last season before meeting in the NWPC championship match, where Princeton (16-2, 5-0) secured a 13-10 victory.

A six-goal run for the Tigers fueled a similar result last Saturday, rounding out a 15-8 victory for their first weekend of conference play.

Strauser scored three goals for Harvard — all within the first two quarters, including to tie the game at 5-5 just before halftime.

“The biggest thing is we didn’t have Clay Carrington,” Minnis said. “He’s a big player for us, and he’s a scorer. He changes how teams have to defend us.”

“I liked what our game plan was. We had some goals, and in the third quarter they got a good push on us off some turnovers,” he added. “They did a good job of feeding the ball, but we gave up too many goals again. I think our turnovers were 15, so it comes back to what the recipe has to be for us to be successful.”

The game evened out at 2-2 following Strauser’s first goal, before the Tigers pushed ahead to a 4-2 lead to close the first quarter. The junior then scored two consecutive goals to tie it up, but Princeton scored twice more to go up 7-5 heading into the half.

The Crimson’s deficit grew after the break, as the Tigers scored six consecutive goals to secure a commanding 11-5 advantage.

However, Harvard continued to build its offensive possession. Capitalizing on a power play, the Crimson cycled the ball through an entry pass to freshman Geoff Slutzky, who slotted a goal with just two seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Both teams’ defensive efforts created a scoring drought midway through the fourth quarter, until senior attacker Jacob Tsodatze found space just in front of the net to cut the deficit to four.

Unfortunately for Harvard, Princeton soon recovered and closed the game by converting its final four goals.

Harvard 18, Long Island 14

The Crimson matched its then-season-high of 18 goals in a match, following a fourth-quarter surge to hold off Long Island University (7-10, 2-4) for its first conference win.

Burghardt and Strauser led the team with four goals each, followed by hat tricks from Kim and junior attacker Lukas Peabody. Senior goalie Oliver Price — the NWPC Defensive Player of the Week — recorded eight saves.

The Crimson jumped to an early 3-0 lead on penalties from Strauser and Burghardt, but the Sharks scored two to cut the deficit at the end of the first quarter.

As the teams traded goals back and forth to maintain a two-goal difference, Harvard eventually swept the tide offensively to take a 10-6 lead heading into the half.

The Sharks, though, began to circle and outscored the Crimson 5-2 in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to one. Though LIU cut the lead to one twice more in the fourth, convincing goals from Burghardt and Kim pushed Harvard back to a two-goal lead and helped slam the door shut.

The Crimson held the home team to 14 goals while scoring two more of its own to secure the 18-14 victory.

Harvard 18, Iona 7

Harvard continued its offensive momentum at Iona (6-15, 1-5) to close out its first weekend with an 18-7 victory, recording consecutive wins for the first time this season.

Leading the visitors, Kim scored six goals — totaling nine across the two games in New York — followed by Burghardt with five and Peabody’s second hat trick of the weekend. Freshman goalie Jonas Ransford swapped in for Price and recorded 11 saves.

The Gaels and the Crimson drew even in the opening quarter at four goals apiece. Though Iona opened up the scoring from a penalty, Burghardt equalized just thirty seconds later.

Strauser pushed Harvard to a 4-2 lead, but two goals in the final two minutes eliminated the deficit and ended the first quarter.

Several turnovers thwarted both teams’ hopes of continuing the goal exchange to begin the second quarter. The Gaels scored their lone goal of the quarter with 1:40 remaining, though Kim answered with two back-to-back goals to maintain a 7-5 advantage.

The Crimson poured another three-goal run onto Iona after halftime, until the Gaels responded with two goals with three and two minutes remaining, respectively.

The hosts were held scoreless for the rest of the game. Fueling Harvard’s seven-goal unanswered barrage, Kim scored a hat trick in one minute and thirty seconds and later capped off the night with his fifth goal — anchoring the Crimson’s 18-7 victory.

Harvard 14, No. 19 Brown 8

Harvard recorded its first victory over a ranked opponent of the season against No. 19 Brown (14-4, 3-2) to kick off its second weekend of conference play, anchored by a sturdy defensive performance and Price’s 13 saves in net.

Eight different players scored for the Crimson in the victory, with Carrington’s hat trick leading the way.

“This team has always been able to score. We have a lot of scorers, so being focused on the defensive side of the ball is really where this team is going to excel,” Minnis said.

The first quarter remained a relatively low-scoring affair, despite the Bears opening the scoring within the first 45 seconds.

But Harvard soon responded with three goals of its own — including Carrington’s first since missing last weekend for international competition — and four saves from Price to close the quarter displayed defensive strength.

The Crimson continued to find its footing with offensive rotations throughout the second quarter, capped by a central pass to senior defender Tyler Hogan, whose top-right corner conversion pushed Harvard ahead 6-3 to end the half.

Thirty seconds into the third quarter, Slutsky’s emphatic finish began the scoring. Brown found a breakthrough on a power play, but Peabody responded with a mid-range shot to maintain a 9-4 lead.

Offensive turnovers, defensive swarms, and missed shots soon limited Harvard — allowing the Bears to notch two goals. Kim, though, provided firepower off a time-out with an outside shot to reclaim a five-goal lead.

The Crimson struggled to convert its shots at the start of the fourth quarter, but it did succeed in maximizing its time advantage. A trio of Price saves, alongside a fastbreak conversion from Kim, created a seven-goal lead.

Brown’s three late goals weren’t enough to overcome the deficit, as Burghardt scored on a late power play to put the cherry on top of the 14-8 victory.

Harvard 21, MIT 13

Harvard traveled down the red line to take one MIT (5-11, 1-4), scoring its most goals in a match since November 2025 for a 21-13 victory over its cross-town rivals.

Four different Crimson players scored at least three goals, with Strauser again leading with four goals.

Three of Harvard’s key attackers — Carrington, Kim, and Strauser — launched it into a 3-0 lead in the first three minutes, though a back-and-forth cut the lead to 4-2 at the end of the first quarter.

The scoring slowed as the second quarter began, but the Engineers tied it at 4-4 with four minutes remaining. The Crimson quickly responded within the next minute, thanks to goals from Burghardt and Tsodatze.

MIT equalized once more at 6-6, but Hogan’s late goal in the final 30 seconds allowed Harvard to ride a one-goal lead heading into the half.

Though neither side scored for the first half of the third quarter, the Engineers seized their first lead of the game with a three-goal run.

“They’re very scrappy, and they do a lot of movement, and they cause some problems,” Minnis said. “We did a good job of defensively figuring it out in the last half of the game. We jumped on them early, and then we had a couple lulls there, and we locked back in.”

In the other half of the quarter, however, Harvard outscored MIT 6-2. Tsodatze initially scored two goals to equalize, and Kim capped off the run with 12 seconds remaining.

Harvard poured a scoring avalanche in the fourth quarter. The Crimson went on two back-to-back three-goal runs, each followed up shortly thereafter by a MIT goal.

Ultimately, the six-goal advantage steered Harvard’s momentum through the closing minutes and with goals from Slutzky and sophomore attacker Emil Sogaard-Srikrishnan, the Crimson comfortably cruised to a 21-13 win.

Harvard will remain in Cambridge at Blodgett Pool this weekend for the Harvard Invitational, where it will face off against one familiar opponent, the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as UC Merced and Pomona-Pitzer.

Afterward, the Crimson will travel to Santa Clara, Calif., for the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament and four Californian opponents before its second round of conference play — where it currently sits in second place in the standings.

“It comes back to our record doesn’t matter. So I’m hoping that we can get some good opportunities to try some stuff and work on some new things,” Minnis said. “We want to be in a position where we’re coming into conference at the end, and we’re giving ourselves an opportunity to win a championship.”

“It’s going to take everybody in this program doing their role and playing their best for us to be able to do that,” the coach added.

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.