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Harvard-Brown to Close out Northern Division Regular Season on April 11
NORTON, Mass. -- Harvard University and Brown University will close out the Northern Division regular season on Saturday, April 11 as the No. 19 ranked Bears and the Crimson clash at a neutral site, Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. The Crimson and Bears played last weekend, with Brown picking up an 11-10 victory at Blodgett Pool on Harvard's campus. Harvard will look to snap a 12-game losing streak at the hands of Brown.
Some of the game's significance was removed earlier this week as Harvard University earned the No. 3 seed for the Northern Division Championship based on head-to-head competition versus Connecticut College. Originally, winning percentage was to be used to break the tie, but head-to-head competition was elected by the coaches as the most equitable divider between the two teams.
However, the two teams will play for something more important: bragging rights and leverage in the hunt for the two at-large bids to the Eastern Championship if either team does not advance to the Northern Division title game.
A Brown victory over Harvard solidifies the Bears near-lock on receiving an at-large bid to the Collegiate Water Polo Association championship tournament. For Harvard, however, the team has even more significance as the Crimson will host the Eastern Championship on April 24-26 and a host team has never failed to make the field.
A quick look at the two teams:
Harvard University
The Crimson, which owns a 9-11 overall record
and a 2-3 mark in the CWPA Northern Division, began its year by
hosting the Harvard Invitational at Blodgett Pool Feb. 14-15.
Harvard rattled off wins against NYAC and Siena and lost to No. 8
Michigan and NYAC that weekend before traveling to Princeton, N.J.,
for the Princeton Invitational Feb. 21-22. Once again, the Crimson
came up with a split, defeating Villanova, 11-2, and George
Washington, 14-4, but falling to Princeton and Bucknell by the
narrowest of margins, 10-8 and 14-13, respectively.
The team then headed to Bucknell for the Elite 6 Tournament and posted a 1-2 mark on the weekend before falling to Hartwick and NYAC March 14.
Harvard traveled to California for a six-game trip, which began at No. 1 Stanford March 21. The Crimson dropped that game, 20-2, but responded with an 8-7 win the next day at Sonoma State. On March 24, Harvard lost at Pacific, 7-6, but then split its games March 26, defeating UC Santa Cruz, 12-8, and falling at No. 11 UC Davis, 5-3. The Crimson closed out the trip with a win at Cal State Monterey Bay.
Head coach Erik Farrar and his
squad then returned to the friendly confines of Blodgett Pool to
host No. 12 Hartwick and Brown April 4. The Crimson lost both of
those games, but responded with wins the following day against
Utica and Connecticut College.
About
Brown
The 19th-ranked Bears are riding a four-game
win streak into Saturday’s contest with Harvard. The team has
rattled off consecutive victories against Hartwick, 8-7, in two
overtimes, Utica, 13-3, Connecticut College, 13-7, and Harvard,
11-10. Overall, the team boasts a 17-12 record and stands second in
the CWPA Northern Division with a 4-1 mark.
Game time is set for 1:00 p.m.
