Harvard Wins Second-Straight CWPA Championship Title in Marathon Match

Sometimes it takes more than four quarters to decide the champion. For Harvard and Princeton in the CWPA Championship, it took four quarters, two overtimes, and four sudden-death periods before the Crimson’s captain, Ella Schneider, secured the title with an 8-7 victory and punched Harvard’s ticket to the NCAA Championships.

Harvard experienced extreme déjà vu throughout the tournament, and the final, sweetest experience was claiming its second consecutive conference championship against its Ivy League rival.

“I’m so excited for this team and how hard they’ve worked and the grit that they showed,” head coach Ted Minnis said. “This, in my opinion, is the grittiest win in Harvard water polo history – both men or women – and the way that they did not want to lose was amazing.”

On Saturday, No. 10 Harvard (26-3, 6-1 CWPA) defeated No. 25 Brown (14-12, 3-3) exactly one week after their last meeting in Providence, R.I., which had earned the Crimson the top seed and a first-round bye for the CWPA Tournament. This set up a rematch with Princeton (24-6, 5-2), who Harvard beat 8-5 earlier in the season. Last year, the Crimson defeated the Tigers in the CWPA Championship to win its first-ever conference title.

Minnis was named the CWPA Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year. Seven Harvard players were honored alongside their coach, with juniors Emma Gilbert and Maya O’Dea selected for First-Team All-CWPA. Sophomore Orli Cooper, sophomore Niki Piovan, and senior Heidi Heffelinger were listed for the second team, and the Crimson’s hero, Schneider, earned an honorable mention.

Semifinal: Harvard 11, Brown 8

After beating Bucknell in the quarterfinals, the Bears found themselves facing the Crimson again and eager for revenge for the senior-night loss the week prior.

Brown started a different goalie than in Providence. The keeper played a large role in keeping Harvard’s scoring uncharacteristically low for the majority of the match.

Junior captain Lucy Berkman scored the first goal of the game following a three-minute scoreless struggle.

Tight play defined the first quarter as the familiar foes engaged in battle once more. Brown led the dance to start and maintained a 4-2 lead after one. It would take the Bears three more periods and two overtimes to score another four points.

Junior attacker O’Dea tallied an early point for Harvard to open the second quarter, but the Crimson struggled to carry out full possessions as it was called for several offensive fouls and badgered by its opponents’ defense. Ultimately, Harvard trailed by one heading into halftime.

Heffelfinger secured the first possession of the third quarter, then executed a swift shot to tie it up. O’Dea soon followed up, giving the Crimson its first advantage since the match’s start.

Unfortunately for the Harvard team fighting to defend its title, Brown eventually managed a response.

Both teams exchanged several blocked shots and turnovers for the remainder of the quarter, until Heffelfinger capped it off with a six-on-five goal.

The fourth quarter, fraught with missed shots by both offenses, saw both teams’ defenders determined to suffocate their opponent’s offense.

Brown ultimately succeeded in a power play opportunity to tie the score, sending the game into overtime.

The bonus three-minute period began in the Bears’ favor, as a shot tipped off a defender’s hands and into the goal.

Brown held possession for well over a minute, but the Crimson successfully warded off another point, despite O’Dea fouling out.

With only 36 seconds remaining for Harvard to score, it seemed as though Brown – and its aggressive goalkeeper – had already guaranteed the end of the Crimson’s season.

However, against all odds, Heffelfinger delivered a buzzer-beater shot to accomplish a hat trick and demand a second overtime.

“I think we just wanted it more,” Heffelfinger said.

Piovan found the back of the net early on, and Heffelfinger stepped up once more on the next possession to put Harvard up 10-8.

Even after a desperate timeout, Brown was unable to put up another point on the scoreboard.

Berkman tallied a point at the very end of the clock to send the Crimson to the finals.

Final: Harvard 8, Princeton 7

No. 13 Princeton, the second seed in the tournament, defeated the hosting University of Michigan — which notably served Harvard its only CWPA regular season loss — on Saturday to advance to the finals. Heading into the title match, the Crimson held the advantage, having won its last contest against the Tigers on March 1.

Heffelfinger tallied the first point of the match, finding the upper reaches of the net in a six-on-five situation.

More than halfway through the quarter, Princeton finally recorded a goal, evening the score.

Both the Tigers and the Crimson’s intense defensive efforts largely prevented the other from building momentum on offense, even during power-play opportunities.

However, through a quick assist into close range, Princeton broke through and scored its second goal of the game. The Tigers then quickly found success near the goal again to close the first quarter with a 3-1 lead.

The trend of back-and-forth shots continued into the second quarter, and the Crimson took a full timeout following an exclusion call on Princeton a minute and a half in.

O’Dea capitalized on the power play, bringing Harvard within one and reinvigorating the Crimson’s scoring as Heffelfinger slammed the ball into the goal on the following possession. Piovan then tallied a point of her own to give the Crimson a 4-3 advantage.

However, Harvard did not maintain a lead for long, as Princeton cut the ball past defenders’ arms and into the goal to knot the score at four.

After two minutes of unsuccessful possessions either way, the Tigers found themselves ahead of the Crimson defenders and were able to regain the lead before the end of the quarter.

Princeton found most of its success in close-range shots and continued to miss or be stopped on attempts from farther off.

Nearly two minutes into the third, O’Dea executed a mid-distance shot to tie the score and catch Princeton off-guard.

Harvard seemed to find its groove once more and reclaimed the lead thanks to a goal from freshman center Petra Klemm.

Princeton’s offense began to fall apart in the face of the Crimson’s aggressive defense.

Although the Tigers were able to get within shooting range, messy passes forced them to scramble for panicked, last-second shots. Both Cooper and the Harvard defenders were unwilling to let up the lead heading into the final quarter.

Princeton finally fought through a scuffle in the first minute to even the score at 6-6.

Neither team scored for a full three minutes, both running down the shot clock and locking down their defenses, until Harvard earned a penalty shot with 4:30 remaining.

O’Dea, claiming a hat trick, fired the shot home to tilt the score in the Crimson’s favor.

The Tigers, however, responded with a point of their own and regained possession with just two minutes remaining in the final quarter. As Princeton tried to find an open attacker, Harvard was called for an exclusion.

Fortunately, the Crimson concentrated its defense at the goal and held off the Tigers’ attempt.

With 45 seconds remaining, Harvard’s own shot was blocked. Princeton got the resulting ball and received a penalty shot.

To the Crimson’s immense relief, Cooper came up with a crucial save to return possession to Harvard with 20 seconds remaining.

Despite switching to a woman-up advantage, the Crimson could not find an open shot, so the game proceeded into overtime with the score locked at 7-7.

Cooper continued to excel in the net. She rejected the Tigers’ first attempt of the period, and both teams missed shots as attackers were pushed back from the goals.

“I just stay really focused and locked in, and I don’t think about the score, I don’t think about the time, I don’t think about anything except for being there for my team and the ball in front of me,” Cooper said.

In transition, Heffelfinger was called on a third exclusion, fouling out of the match.

“I talk loud when I’m in, I can cheer just as loud from the bench,” Heffelfinger said. “It’s a team game, and I knew that my team would pull through.”

Princeton recovered its goalie’s block in the final seconds, but could not make it down the pool in time as the second overtime ended.

Entering into a three-minute, sudden-death period, the Crimson won the opening sprint, but the Tigers intercepted a pass. Cooper blocked the resulting attempt, as did Princeton’s goalie on Harvard’s following try.

After strong defensive performances on either end of the pool, the match continued into a second sudden-death period.

The Crimson gained first possession again, but an offensive foul turned the ball over to the Tigers, who could not capitalize.

A Princeton player fouled out, and both goalies continued to make key saves to stop the offenses, extending the match to a third sudden victory.

The Tigers began the period hoping to produce again at close-range, but Harvard anticipated the pass and hounded the receiver.

Halfway through the period, Gilbert’s shot caught the goalie’s hands and fell just short of the goal line.

Cooper blocked Princeton’s attempt and rolled the competition into yet another sudden-death period.

The fourth period did not last long. Although junior attacker Lily Britt fouled out, the Crimson’s defense did not fold. Cooper’s near-impossible reach-back save dished the ball back to the Crimson and marked her 18th save of the game.

Schneider delivered Harvard to victory with a mid-distance skip-shot, causing Harvard to erupt into cheers at the culmination of the weekend’s extended, hard-fought competitions.

With its second conference title under its belt, the Crimson clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championships. The tournament will kick off on April 22 in San Diego, Calif.

Last season, in its NCAA Tournament debut, Harvard fell in the first round of the tournament to Southern California. The team, continuing its historic season, undoubtedly hopes to advance past the first round this spring.

“I think we’ve just constantly been proving other people wrong,” Schneider said. “So we’re going to just keep doing that and training hard these next two weeks, to put in the work to put our best foot forward against another really good opponent.”

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