No. 16 Harvard Men’s Water Polo Splits Opening Four Games Against Three Top-25 Opponents

Harvard men’s water polo (2-2) split its first set of four non-conference games in the Bruno Classic this weekend, facing off against three top-25-ranked opponents while recording its strongest defensive performance in two seasons.

The Crimson lost its two matches against top-20 teams — No. 13 Cal Baptist and No. 15 University of the Pacific — by only one goal, while beating No. 24 Air Force by the same margin. It conceded only six goals in a game for the first time since September 2024, in a 20-6 win against Concordia University Irvine.

Though fielding a thinner roster compared to most of its opponents, the team only graduated two seniors — captain attacker Mason Hunt and goalkeeper Tanner Furtak, who finished as an All-Conference Honorable Mention — both with stable roles in the Crimson’s lineup rotations.

The team returned its top-six goal scorers from last season, including senior utility Jack Burghardt, the 2025 Northeast Water Polo Championship’s Most Valuable Player. The senior led Harvard’s scoring with 98 goals, while the team also welcomed back its top-two assist-providers — attackers senior Vilas-Sogaard-Srikrishnan and junior Dean Strauser.

This weekend, roughly a third of the Crimson’s goals — 21 in total — came from its freshman class, including attacker Clay Carrington and centers Geoff Slutsky and Rigby Snapp. Slutsky scored in all four games, while another freshman, Jonas Ransford, played two and a half games in net for Harvard.

“Jonas comes from a pedigree,” head coach Ted Minnis said in an interview after beating Wagner, pointing to Ransford’s high school and international experience. “I thought he was the best goalie in that class.”

“We got a lot out of Carrington and Slutsky. Snapp did a good job in this game,” he added. “So, this is a really good freshman class that’s going to just help and add depth to a team that we returned a lot of scoring from last year.”

No. 13 Cal Baptist 16, Harvard 15

Harvard hadn’t beaten Cal Baptist (3-1) for the past two matchups — with its last wins coming in the 2023 and 2024 seasons by only a one-goal margin.

The Lancers continued their winning streak and defensive sturdiness, securing the one-goal edge in the opening match on Saturday, recovering from an early 3-0 deficit in the first quarter and scoring the final dagger to hold off the Crimson’s attempts at a comeback.

Burghardt led the scoring with five goals—two of which came in the fourth quarter to tie the game—followed by Carrington’s four goals in his collegiate debut match. In net, Ransford finished the match with 11 saves.

Following back-to-back exclusions for the Lancers, Harvard continued to appear extremely comfortable rotating the ball in its possession, scoring on three of its four possessions.

The Crimson only had one shot during the ensuing 4-0 run. It took Harvard a few minutes, but cautious build-up was soon rewarded, with junior attacker Lukas Peabody finding Burghardt to tie the game at 4-4.

After Cal Baptist jumped to a two-goal lead to open the second half, the Crimson converted a power play for the first time since its opening run, with Strauser winding the ball past two defenders.

Several of the goals Harvard conceded came from its defensive openness, with the Lancers finding space by driving through or rotating right in front of the net — leaving Ransford little time to respond. Offensively, Crimson was unable to capitalize on power plays and locate its central attackers.

In the third quarter, Cal Baptist and Harvard traded goals back-to-back, with the respective goalies also racking up saves to limit the goal conversions — though Sogaard-Srikrishnan scored to close the quarter at 13-12.

During the final frame, Burghardt, riding a solidified Harvard defense, scored twice to take the lead at 15-14 with three minutes remaining.

Cal Baptist took advantage of a power play on its very next possession, finding the entry pass to force Ransford in a last-man situation.

It was enough to fuel their momentum to finish the game. The Lancers then closed the scoring with their 16th goal through a cross-pool shot, and four saves in the quarter from their goalie locked the Crimson out.

Harvard 18, No. 24 Air Force 17

A last-minute two-goal takeoff in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough for the Air Force Falcons (3-2) to expand their wings over Harvard, who had won the last five of nine all-time meetings.

The score was never separated by more than three goals, but Ransford’s eight saves after being substituted in during the second half helped secure the Crimson’s victory.

Burghardt, Strauser, and senior defender Tyler Hogan led the scoring with four goals each, followed by sophomore attacker Connor Kim’s three and Snapp’s first conversion.

Harvard struggled to defend its right post for the first two quarters. Five of nine goals scored appeared nearly identical — the Falcons drove down the opposing left wing before a cross-goal pass found an open attacker on the backpost.

Strauser scored two goals early, and a minute later, a deflected ball helped him assist Kim quickly up the pool for a 3-1 lead. Three saves from the Air Force keeper, matched by five steals from Harvard, ended the quarter.

Completing his hat trick, Strauser scored his third, but the slew of Air Force goals at the right post tied the match at 7-7.

Senior Oliver Price saved several shots in net, holding the Air Force from fully soaring — including an ensuing penalty. The Crimson, however, was unable to recover and capitalize on its offensive chances.

Ransford started the quarter with three saves and stopped several counterattacks, with the teams exchanging goals to keep the difference at one. Harvard got the last word in the quarter, with Burghardt emphatically slamming a shot at the right post to beat the buzzer.

Hogan and Strauser each scored to push the Crimson ahead by three goals, its largest lead of the game.

Over the next two minutes, Harvard then struggled again to locate its middle man Burghardt, with several passes intended for the central attacker blocked.

“We’re skipping our passes back,” Minnis said. “We get a little off our leg base, and the entry passes aren’t crisp and clean where our centers are going to be able to make a big move.”

“Jack, he’s the returning conference player of the year — everybody knows who he is, and so he’s going to draw a lot of attention,” he added. “We have to be able to get that ball tight into him so he can make a move.”

Though the Falcons scored once more, several saves from Ransford defused further shots from various ranges, allowing the Crimson to calmly cycle the ball to close the game.

No. 15 University of the Pacific 12, Harvard 11

Harvard has only beaten the University of the Pacific (3-1) once in ten meetings — a 22-19 overtime win in 2023 during the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament.

The Crimson scored 11 goals or less only six times last season, while it conceded at most 12 goals in 14 matches. Six different players scored for Harvard, with each scoring at most two.

Down on the power play, the Tigers quickly rotated to find a two-goal lead. Kim assisted Slutsky to break through for Harvard, but the Crimson still struggled to locate its central attackers, swarmed by Pacific defenders.

Harvard tied the game heading into the second quarter, finding pace to assist Burghardt in the middle for a 3-3 tie.

Throughout the second quarter, the Tigers continued to diffuse attempted entry passes, but their physical acuity eventually led to a penalty — which Sogaard-Srikrishnan converted.

Pacific scored in the final minute, entering the third quarter with a 6-5 lead. The streak continued as the Tigers jumped out to a three-goal lead, with Harvard losing possession to several turnovers.

Carrington, though unable to find the inward pass, scored from the outskirts after a Pacific turnover. He followed up with a penalty conversion, but the Tigers maintained a lead of 10-8 heading into the final quarter. Luckily for the Crimson fans at Blodgett Pool, Ransford made several saves in one-on-one situations to slow the offensive onslaught.

Both Burghardt and Slutsky began to succeed, with Slutsky slotting centrally while Burghardt placed an anchor position near the backline.

Though the Tigers quickly cut off further counterattacks, a turnover for Pacific led to three back-to-back possessions for Harvard, but it still struggled to break through and was left to take awkwardly angled outside shots.

Harvard gave itself a fighting chance by blocking the Tigers’ attempted entry passes, but Peabody and senior attacker Jacob Tsodatze’s consolation goals were too late with six seconds remaining.

Harvard 18, Wagner College 6

While allowing the least number of goals against Wagner (1-5) since September 2024, the Crimson’s leading goalscorers paired experience with youth — Burghardt, Carrington, and Rigby all scored four apiece.

Wagner, meanwhile, struggled during the weekend against NWPC opposition, falling to No. 20 Brown University and Long Island University, though beating MIT by one.

Harvard jumped to a 3-0 lead early within the first two minutes of the opening quarter, with Carrington soon scoring his second goal and the team converting in four of its first five possessions.

The Seahawks shifted toward playing two attackers but still struggled to break through inside, leading to forced outside shots landing in Price’s hands.

The visitors stepped up defensively to the end of the quarter, locking down recoveries of possession in its central defensive half, though Tsodatze held Harvard’s front by tallying several steals and interceptions.

Securing its first shutout quarter of the weekend, Strauser continued the Crimson’s scoring streak with time and space to advance toward a 5-0 lead.

Wagner finally nabbed its chance, scoring two, but a combination of plays between Harvard’s three offensive freshmen helped push the Crimson ahead by nine.

Burghardt lofted two goals after wrestling his way into space through three defenders, as Harvard was able to apply quick — and, at times, double pressure — to swarm the Seahawks’ buildup.

A trio of saves from Wagner’s keeper, including a pair of penalty shots denied, led to the team striking first in the fourth quarter.

The offense dramatically slowed in the final quarter, with several shots landing wide and both defenses stabilizing and stepping up to the plate. Though the Seahawks scored three, Rigby responded with two of his own, and Slutsky finished a wide-open opportunity, as the freshmen closed the scoring at 18-6 to end the game.

“They scored three goals in the set in the fourth quarter,” Minnis said. “What we’re talking about is how we can lock in on the defensive side, how we can be better because we want to compete against the best teams in the country, and we can’t be playing 18, 17 games and think we’re going to be able to do that against the top team.”

“So we’ve got to lock in defensively. I thought we did a really good job of that this weekend, and got better as each game went along,” he added.

Harvard will not return to Blodgett Pool until October 3, when it faces No. 9 Princeton University — the reigning NWPC champions — to open up conference play. The Crimson will head to Davis, Calif., next weekend for the Aggie Roundup, where it will face off against three top-15 opponents: No. 4 California, No. 6 San Jose State, and No. 11 UC Davis.

“We haven’t won that championship in a long time, and they want to be the ones that bring that back,” Minnis added. “We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got a lot of work. We’ve got a lot of good teams in our conference that we’re going to have to play.”

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