HWP Tees

To break up the sleepless nights in Lamont and the angst of living off brain-break stale bagels, HWP took a study break with delicious ice cream cake and collected our new apparel from Freshman, Laurel McCarthy's room.  

At least we'll look stylish in lamont...right? 

Grinding away, 

Kelly Peeler '10

Surprise Day Off!

On our bus ride back from the lovely Oneonta, Erik announced a team meeting followed by....NOTHING!  

Nicola and Shami are off to take a run and enjoy the FIRST day that feels like spring.  Unfortunately many of us will be stuck in good old Lamonster.  

Three cheers for mid-term season! 

- Kelly Peeler '10

Two Down at Hartwick

It was a disappointing weekend for HWP.

After traveling to lovely Oneonta (WHOOOT LAST TIME EVER FOR THE SENIORS!) to play in Hartwick College's abomination of a pool, we sadly dropped two games against Hartwick and NYAC on Saturday.

In the past, Hartwick was the super power not to be reckoned with. What with Olympians and roid-esque monster-shooters, we have always had trouble taking this team down.

Bronwen Knox, Australian Olympian and Hartwick Alum

This year though is different, and after the disappointing loss yesterday, we are SOOOO going to take them in our pool (without the shallow end).

NYAC was definitely not the best. But on a fun side, it ended with a shoot-out, and Laurel McCarthy stopped a 5 meter shot! Congrats Laurel! Patty Smith also recorded 4 shots, a high for her for the season thus far.

Patty Smith at Hartwick

Next week, we travel to California to take on good ol' #1. Keep an eye on the blog and on gocrimson for updates!

-Nicola and Devon

Poor Choice for Day Off Activities

Finally the week is done! (in water polo days that is) 

After a hard week of conditioning, HWP's Tuesday day off could not have come sooner.  Every week I face the same dilemma - what to do on my day off? Do I get jump-start on the ten-pager due on Saturday?  Definitely not happening.  Do I catch up on my TV shows online? Potentially. Do I intersperse my day with three naps? Only if my name is Devon MacLaughlin.  

This Tuesday morning, I decided to mix it up and join my room-mate in a session of Bikram Yoga.  Tough choice.  This hour and a half session includes 26 sets of positions in a 105 Degree room.  Sweating approximately three nalgenes of water and getting knotted up in a ball made me realize any form of exercise probably is not the best thing to be doing on my one and only day off.   Maybe I'll revisit in the fall. 

Lesson learned and off to take an epic nap.

Kelly 

Crimson Article

Be sure to check out this sweeeeeet article in The Harvard Crimson about our 6 all-star freshwomen!

A Building Week in the Pool... Not So Much Outside of It...

No games to report on this week, but a few notable events did occur.

First of all, Shannon and I both celebrated birthdays. I turned 22 (oh my, I'm old), and she turned 19 (oh my, she's young). To celebrate, we decided to dress up:


She's supposed to be a phoenix guys, come on!

Otherwise, our team business shark, Kelly Peeler, has, once again, awed us with her versatility and range of abilities. Check out her latest issue of Freeze Magazine. Not only does this girl publish an online monthly, but she's working with JP Morgan this summer and probably knows more about business savvy than any other undergrad on campus.

That's all for now. More on polo next week.

-Nicola

Bison Burger

Another weekend and another tournament brings us to a 5 win, 6 loss game record. Not too shabby considering we've played a number of top 20 teams and are starting 5 freshmen.

This weekend we took the 7 hour bus trip to Bucknell to play for the first time in the Elite 6 Tournament. While Lewisburg, PA, and the amish certainly held some charm (not), our main focus was payback for last weekend. Our goal was, alas, only half accomplished. Saturday night, we beat the Bucknell Bison (or water buffalo) 11-9. Devan Kennifer and Shannon Purcell each netted 4 goals for the victory. It was a huge win for the Crimson. We followed that this afternoon with a 13-5 loss against Princeton. We'll take them at Easterns though.

Besides that, the team is looking forward to 12 days of practice before our next matches. There's a ton to work on... (including honing our "Never Have I Ever" skills for the next bus ride! Who knew that "Would you rather die or bake a baby?" was inappropriate?)...

Until next time...

-Nicola
Bison to Bison Burger (Harvard vs. Bucknell, 11-9)
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Rookie of the Week, NUMBER 2!

WHOOT look at our freshmen go! We have another Rookie of the Week in the Northern Division!

Congrats Ita! (Cue "Rule Britannia")

Tourni Recap!

Hey out there!

Well, it's finally begun... GAMES! The women's team started off their season of competition two weekends ago at the first annual Harvard Invitational. We began on Saturday with a win over New York Athletic Club (whose roster includes former Brown players, Stanford players, and almost-Olympians) followed by a loss to number 8 Michigan. The next day we were defeated by NYAC in a follow-up game, then crushed Siena, to round out the weekend with a 2 and 2 record... not so shabby.

Last weekend we travelled to Princeton for their annual tourni. This trip is one of our favorites... to "Whole-Paycheck (Foods)" runs, to lots of parents making appearances (with snacks!), to spectacular competition, the weekend always promises to be fun and rewarding. This year the team did better than in any year past, going 2 and 2. The real highlight, however, was a comeback in the fourth quarter during our Princeton match. We look forward to a rematch next weekend at the "Elite 6" Bucknell Tournament, where we hope to turn our unfortunate last minute losses into big W's.

The team is doing great. Devan Kennifer was named Rookie of the CWPA Northern Division Co-Rookie of the Week, and many others had caused quite a few waves. Minus a few bouts of flu and colds, we have never been so strong and healthy before, and we're ready to take HWWP to new levels. As Ellen likes to say: "Kick your own asses." And... that's what I plan to do now... Practice time!

-Nicola



The team at Princeton!











PS- Be sure to check gocrimson.com for updates on schedules! We hope to see you at games!

Olympic Development Tryout

Egen Atkinson (class of '10) and I (class of '11) drove down to Brown today to tryout for the east coast contingent that will be sent to California for USA Water polo's new Olympic Development Program. Felix, the head coach of Brown, was in charge for the tryout.

It was a lot of fun to get back into the water and scrimmage. Aside from Egen and myself, there were three guys from MIT and a bunch of guys from Brown. We roughly played 4 extended periods and just went back and forth a bunch of times. All in all, Egen and I had fun butting heads with a lot of our in-season rivals in a more friendly setting. We got our fair share of good looks and shots so things were looking up by the end of the session.

Playing with the other players form MIT and Brown today convinced us that with hard work, we can take the Northern Division next season. Also with St. Francis out for one year (the euros got suspended for the 2009 season for fighting or something idiotic), we are presented with a golden opportunity. We started our offseason training last week and things are looking good.

More to come later,
Jeff Lee

Hello HWP Lovers

As captains of the Harvard Women's Water Polo Team, we would like to say hello to all the HWP lovers out there. (We would also like to extend a plea for fan attendance—chest paint encouraged, but not required—at our upcoming games!!!)

The season has started off with the typical bang. Following winter break and reading period, the team came back ready for for water polo (maybe not so much for finals...). Our preseason, held during intercession (January 23-28), was a blur. When we weren't in the pool we were either sleeping or eating ridiculous amounts of food, that, as stipulated by Erik, "grows on trees or out of the ground." He continued, "Devon, Nicola, that means no Honey-Nut Bunches of Oat Cereal. Unless you have found the mythical Honey-Nut Bunches of Oat trees." (We're still looking).

Following preseason, the team moved seamlessly into second semester. Practice now continues as intensely as ever, and every day we improve in the water. Inclusion of new "visualization" exercises and videos of our Olympian Assistant Coach, Ellen Estes Lee, have allowed us to boost our psychological states and game understanding as well.

The forecast looks very good for this year's team. We have a baller freshmen class, we are swimming faster than we ever have before (2 team members, Lizzie Abbott and Monica Zdrogewski both are consistently coming in under a spectacular 4:30 on our 4o0 meter test set), and we are generally feeling healthier and more excited to play polo than during the last three years.

And this excitement is a good thing, considering the first annual Harvard Water Polo Women's Invitational is being held on Valentine's Day, just under two weeks away, (clearly, we have our priorities straight: Water Polo >>> Boys). Game times aren't posted yet, but be sure to check GoCrimson for updates. On our end, we'll be sure to keep all you out there in the loop as well.

Harvard-huh! (Our pre-game cheer),

Nicola Perlman (2009)

Devon MacLaughlin (2009)

A New Year and a Championship in Sight

Hello Harvard Water Polo fans from Hawaii to Serbia!

My name is Egen Atkinson and I'm a junior on the men's team originally from Honolulu.  Bret Voith (current sophomore from Coral Gables, FL) and I are the new captains of the men's team for the 2009 year (spring off-season and fall season).  Now that the 2008 season and fall final exams have come and gone, I thought this would be a good time to christen this blog with a little recap of 2008 and a preview of what's coming for HMWP in 2009.  You can also read a more technical/statistical recap of our season on the GoCrimson website here.

There's no way around the fact that the 2008 season didn't end the way we all had hoped.  We had high expectations from the start of the season, but found ourselves unable to meet many of the goals we set for ourselves.  While the season's highlights included a great 10-9 win over MIT, a strong effort against Pepperdine during our California trip, and an All-Northern team selection in senior David Tune, we struggled throughout much of the season.  Whether it was a tough overtime loss to Brown or a disappointing 6th place finish at Northerns, we seemed unable to ever 'click' as a team last year and play solid polo.  Even though it was trying at times, the season was still an invaluable growth opportunity for all of us.  Not participating in the Eastern Championships was especially difficult for us, although on the bright side it is now serving to fuel a roaring fire of desire to train for next year.

In fact, the new season has already begun, and we've hit the ground running in the best way possible: with our eyes focused on a Northern Championship en route to an Eastern Championship in 2009.  Last week we resumed strength training with the always inspirational, always demanding Coach Tim Mullen.  By the end of the spring semester he will no doubt have us all squatting Volkswagens, benching redwoods, and doing more chin-ups than J Connolly ever dreamed of... which, if you weren't aware, is quite a lot.  Additionally, Bret and I, with Erik's help, have set up what we hope will be a valuable off-season in the water: a good deal of conditioning and even more playing water polo.  Many of the practices in February and March will be "Captains' Practices" run by Bret and I until Erik takes over with some more technical coaching in April and May.  Additionally, several men's team members are planning to travel to Brown this weekend to try out for the Olympic development program, which will be hosting a larger national tryout in Los Angeles in late February.

Finally, the team is as happy and as fun-loving as ever as Spring training picks up.  This weekend we got together to "bro-out" and watch an exciting Superbowl match-up while stuffing ourselves with something like 10 XL pizzas.  

I hope you've enjoyed the first HWP blog post!  Check back every few weeks; Bret and I, as well as the women's team captains Nicola Perlman and Devon MacLaughlin, have some good (and maybe some not-so-good) ideas for how to make this blog lively and enjoyable, including "spotlighting" different (unwilling?) members of the team and of course keeping you up-to-date on our training, competition, and camaraderie.

GO CRIMSON!!

Egen Atkinson, 2010

Bret Voith, 2011