Men's water polo falls to Harvard, goes 2-3

"This is one of the best men's water polo games I've seen in my life," declared an excited fan after the end of the second overtime. Harvard's left wing had made a shot in the last second that almost found its way into Prince-ton's goal.

Princeton (9-3) was tied, 10-10, with its archrival in the opening game of the North/South Invitational last Friday. The teams had re-mained tied through overtime, bringing on a sudden death period. Senior goalkeeper Jon Pharris and the crossbar saved the Tigers twice, but the clock kept running and the Crimson seemed to be approaching victory.

In the second period of sudden death, Harvard's forward Mike Gerrity finally ended the game with the perfect touch: a completely unexpected spinner lob that slowly passed the goal line.

Harvard had defeated Princeton in an incredible match. But it was just the beginning of what would be a great weekend for water polo, if not so good for the Tigers. Princeton obtained an easy victory against Iona and an overly complicated one against UMass, but suffered three defeats. Along with Harvard, Queens and Saint Francis were able to defeat the Tigers in their own pool.

Princeton had great expectations for the North/South Invitational, especially since they were undefeated (7-0, 4-0 CWPA) before the game against the Crimson. And despite junior two-meter Kevin Foster's eleven-goal weekend, Princeton was not able to maintain its undefeated record.

"The loss against Harvard was a hard shock," senior Marshall Roslyn said. "It definitely affected us in the other four games."

This fact was evident the game against Queens the next day. The Tigers looked lost in the first half, which ended 4-2 in favor of the Royals.

In the second half, the team revived, but the effort wasn't enough — Queens scored two more times and the final score was a painful 6-5.

A strong defense and a fast break offense was evident against a weak Iona. The Tigers easily obtained a 9-5 victory. Princeton was led by a hat trick by junior Kevin Foster and two goals by both Roslyn and Urquhart. Sophomores D.J. Halliday and Dan McKenna each added a goal as well.

The match against UMass was a perfect example of how the entire weekend was. Terrible defensive and offensive mistakes marked the game, causing it to become much more complicated than it should have been. The defense kept awarding the Minutemen two-meters with too much space, which allowed them to score five goals through wide-open shots that Pharris was unable to stop.

The teams traded goals until the end of the fourth quarter, when the score was tied 5-5. Again, Princeton was playing overtime.

But finally, the Tigers demanded respect in their own pool. Foster scored in the last seconds of the first overtime and Halliday capped the score with a tough shot in the second to lead Princeton to the win.

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Nevertheless, the Tigers were unable to keep the momentum and fell in the final match. In a game that extended to overtime for the third time in five games, Princeton lost to Saint Francis, 7-6. It was a game of many offensive mistakes that ruined Pharris's awesome night. The senior goalie made 16 saves in a night where the offense simply did not take advantage of many goal opportunities.

"Of course we expected to do better," said sophomore Dan McKenna, who scored four goals in the series, "but we were more concentrated on playing as a team."

However, the team wasn't able to make a balance between defense and offense. Except for the match against Iona, one of the two sections failed in every game. Therefore, the Tigers lost the magic they seemed to have during the past weeks.

"Now comes the CWPA (Collegiate Water Polo Association) league weekend on Oct. 19-21," sophomore D.J. Halliday said, "let's see if we can come back to the trail we were following before the North/South Invitational."

Perhaps this time, with no hour-long overtimes to play, the Princeton water polo team will get its reputation back.