Harvard Women’s Water Polo Dominates Harvard Invite, Builds on Historic Start to Season

No. 13 Harvard women’s water polo (16-1, 4-1 CWPA) made light work of its opponents this weekend in its second-to-last round of competition in Blodgett Pool.

The Crimson toppled Villanova (8-6, 0-0 MAAC) and UC Merced (1-8, 0-1 WWPA) before defeating rival No. 14 Princeton (14-1, 3-1 CWPA) and gaining an easy Senior Day victory over Marist (12-4, 2-0 MAAC).

Despite losing its 11-0 undefeated streak to No. 12 Michigan last weekend, Harvard continued its best start in 22 years.

“We won our conference last year, and so all these teams come in and they give us their best shot. We learned a lot of lessons last week from the Michigan game,” Head Coach Ted Minnis said. “We talked about that coming into this week.”

With the gritty Sunday win against conference rival Princeton, the Crimson – in turn – also ended the Tigers’ undefeated streak.

No. 13 Harvard 19, Villanova 7

The Wildcats experienced remarkable déja vu in their second meeting of the season with the Crimson this weekend. Only 20 days earlier, the first matchup – in Villanova’s home pool – ended in an 18-8 Harvard victory.

Not even a minute into the game, junior center defender Emma Gilbert fought through defenders to score the Crimson’s first point.

The Wildcats could not tie the score until they received a penalty shot midway through the quarter, and they followed it with a goal on the next possession to take the lead.

Junior attacker Maya O’Dea then managed to bring the score to 2-2 with a shot behind the defender and into the net.

Villanova readily responded with another goal of its own, but Harvard reasserted itself by tallying another point and sinking a successful penalty shot to retake the lead.

But, with only 18 seconds left in the first quarter, the Wildcats scored in a six-on-five situation to tie it up once more at 4-4.

Gilbert again jump-started the Crimson’s offense early in the period with a goal only 15 seconds in, firing it off at a sharp angle.

Two more unanswered goals from Harvard opened a comfortable 7-4 lead, which was protected by several key saves from sophomore goalie Orli Cooper.

More than halfway through the second period, Gilbert secured a hat trick and doubled Villanova’s score, 8-4.

The Wildcats eventually scored for the first time in the quarter with a calculated placement. Moments later, however, freshman center Petra Klemm closed out a sustained offensive effort from the Crimson with another point.

Both teams squeezed out one more goal each from the final 30 seconds, leaving Harvard up 10-6 going into the latter half of the match.

The Crimson immediately wrestled the ball away from the Wildcats at the opening of the quarter, creating a perfect early point for O’Dea.

Villanova capitalized on another power play opportunity, but Harvard quickly followed up with one of its own.

The Crimson then barrelled ahead with freshman utility Lucy Levenberg-Penklis powering the ball through the goalie’s hands and captain utility Ella Schneider delivering a penalty shot to again double Villanova’s score 14-7.

At the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats’ offense was pushed far out from the Crimson goal.

Harvard, however, had no issue getting in proximity to its opponent’s net, as Levenberg-Penklis demonstrated by tallying another point with 18 seconds left in the quarter.

Villanova did not score at all in the final period.

The Crimson did not have this problem. Gilbert scored yet another early point, and a later penalty shot brought the junior’s total for the match to six goals.

Freshman utility Sofia Wang executed on a breakaway with an assist from junior attacker Lily Britt, which Villanova was wholly incapable of stopping.

Harvard scored another point, and the Wildcats remained quiet for the final two minutes – handing the Crimson its first win of the weekend.

No. 13 Harvard 22, UC Merced 6

As though the 12-point win over Villanova was not evidence enough of the Crimson’s dominance, Harvard soundly crushed the UC Merced Golden Bobcats by 16 points later that afternoon.

O’Dea drained a penalty shot 15 seconds into the match and sparked a huge Crimson scoring run.

On the next possession, sophomore defender Niki Piovan tallied a second point. A forced turnover then gave Harvard an easy assist and goal.

Sophomore attacker Sofia Del Villar scored the next point and followed it up with her second point in less than 30 seconds to put the Crimson up 5-0 before even three minutes had elapsed.

The Harvard defense fought relentlessly for interceptions and turnovers, scoring twice more.

The Golden Bobcats called a timeout halfway through the quarter, desperate to stop the bleeding as the Crimson had scored on every possession of the match.

With two minutes left, Harvard scored out of another timeout, but UC Merced finally managed a goal of its own. The Crimson promptly responded just before the end of the quarter, reaching double digits with a devastating 10-1 score.

Appearing to already count themselves out of the game, the Golden Bobcat defense looked entirely helpless in the second quarter.

The UC Merced goalkeeper failed to take up enough space and permitted three straight Harvard points before the halfway mark of the second quarter.

After another Crimson score, senior utility Heidi Heffelfinger delivered an explosive shot, bouncing it off the inner goal frame and bringing the lead to 15-1.

Harvard secured a pair of successful penalty shots, and the Golden Bobcats put together an applaudable effort – an attacker forcing her way through the Crimson defense to tally a second point just at the end of the quarter.

UC Merced’s bench erupted as the team beat Harvard to first possession of the second half, but quickly silenced as the Crimson forced a turnover and capitalized on it.

The Golden Bobcats managed a long shot into the upper portion of the net, after which a stretch of back-and-forth points followed. The exchange of goals ended with a point from Gilbert in the last 44 seconds of the third quarter, sinking UC Merced deep in a 21-5 deficit.

Klemm deftly navigated the Golden Bobcats’ defense to get close to the goal and score only 30 seconds into the final quarter.

But UC Merced seemed determined to make a stand, pushing Harvard to run down its shot clock without making an attempt on the goal.

With two minutes left, the Golden Bobcats scored their sixth point from long range when most Crimson defenders had already peeled away to transition into offense.

While UC Merced impeded Harvard’s scoring in the fourth period, it was unable to contribute any more points of its own as a last-ditch, unsuccessful 7-on-6 attempt failed at the final buzzer.

No. 13 Harvard 8, No. 14 Princeton 5

In the highly-anticipated matchup against the Crimson’s Ivy and CWPA rival – who still had an undefeated record – a competitive spirit possessed both the pool and the stands.

“A rivalry game is always going to be there with Princeton and Brown, because of the Ivy component,” Minnis said. “But for me, this game was more about us really focused on being the best we could and realize that we’re taking everybody’s big swing this year.”

O’Dea executed a successful penalty shot before 30 seconds passed.

Princeton, under pressure to match the Crimson point, intercepted a pass and received a 6-on-5 opportunity that was ultimately foiled by Cooper.

Harvard scored two more unanswered goals before the end of the first quarter from Gilbert and Klemm, respectively.

In the first three minutes of the second period, Cooper tallied up four saves on close-range attempts – hampering the Tigers’ offensive efforts.

O’Dea scored on a power play out of a timeout, just before Princeton finally managed to score in a 6-on-5 of its own in the fourth minute.

The Crimson again added another pair of goals, contributed by junior attackers O’Dea and junior captain Lucy Berkman. The remainder of the second quarter passed uneventfully, and the first half of the match closed 6-1 in Harvard’s favor.

In the third period, however, the Tigers flipped a switch.

“I think they made some adjustments where they got a little more movement going and got us into some foul trouble,” Minnis said.

Ramping up its offensive efforts to chip away at the Crimson lead, Princeton scored on a power play and again on its next possession.

Harvard had been consistently taking shots on the Tigers’ goal, but many made for easy saves or were delivered right to the goalie.

But thanks to Piovan’s goal with only 44 seconds left, the Crimson did not go entirely scoreless in the third quarter.

Princeton did respond with another point, cutting Harvard’s lead to 7-4 and building pressure going into the final eight minutes.

“For us, it’s just about maintaining control throughout all the quarters. I think that, even though they had a spurt of energy there, we were able to just come back to what we know,” Schneider said.

Both teams put on a defensive show in the first half of the final quarter. However, the Tigers broke through and released a well-placed shot to make it a two-point game.

The Crimson remained persistent and controlled in its efforts as Princeton became increasingly desperate to cover ground in the remaining minutes.

Klemm delivered on a power play with a little more than a minute left, and Cooper rejected the Tigers’ futile attempt to respond.

Harvard then waited out the remaining seconds on the clock to solidify a well-fought conference victory.

No. 13 Harvard 14, No. 18 Marist 8

Before its final match of the weekend, the Crimson honored its senior class: Schneider, Heffelfinger, and goalkeeper Sutchie Ofori-Nyako.

“They believed in what we were doing here and that they could come in here and help us do something that had never been done before,” Minnis said of the seniors. “And they did that last year, and they’re continuing to do that.”

Heffelfinger opened up the match for Harvard by scoring about a minute into the quarter.

Although Marist then tied the score, Piovan quickly backed up the Crimson’s lead with a mid-distance shot.

Harvard scored again off a cross-goal assist, but the Red Foxes leveraged a power play to keep the lead within reach, albeit temporarily.

The Crimson then proceeded to tally three points before the end of the quarter, each one finding the same sweet spot in the upper corner of Marist’s goal.

A quick assist from Heffelfinger opened up a scoring opportunity for Piovan in the beginning of the second quarter.

O’Dea – on a penalty shot a minute later – bounced the ball over the goalie and in.

Harvard’s 8-2 lead dampened both the Red Foxes’ spirits and play, as they struggled to find open teammates and frequently sent passes too long.

The Crimson’s passing, on the other hand, was textbook. Quick ball movement between players and a delivery from Del Villar added a ninth point.

Marist finally accomplished a goal halfway through, but neither team would score again in the remaining four minutes of the quarter.

The third period began with the Red Foxes’ score making up only a third of the Crimson’s, perhaps motivating Marist to escalate its offense in addition to its improving defense.

Nevertheless, Piovan pushed through for a hat trick and moved the Crimson into double-digit territory.

The Red Foxes responded, and Harvard then nullified that point with a diving tip into the goal.

In the remaining three minutes, the Crimson and its opponent each scored twice. Although Marist doubled its score in the third quarter, the Red Foxes entered the final eight minutes down 13-6.

Piovan, despite being shoved underwater by two aggressive Marist defenders, scored in the opening 15 seconds.

The Red Foxes tallied a point of their own immediately after with a high tip, but did not score again for three minutes.

Marist called a timeout, hoping to maximize the remaining time to at least double its score.

But, after a Crimson interception immediately out of the timeout, it became abundantly clear the Red Foxes would not have the chance.

Ofori-Nyako executed a key one-on-one save towards the end of the quarter as a Marist attacker broke away from Harvard’s defense, officially snuffing out the Red Foxes’ hopes of making a comeback.

The final buzzer sounded on the Crimson’s last match of the weekend and confirmed its undefeated home weekend.

Harvard will look to continue its best season start in 22 years in its final home matches of the season at Blodgett Pool on Sunday, March 8, against non-conference competitors Siena College and Virginia Military Institute. The matches will be streamed on ESPN+ at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. EST, respectively.

— Staff writer Bennett Trubey can be reached at [email protected].