The women's water polo team had a stellar performance at the Northern Division Championship this weekend. The Bears battled previous competition — Connecticut College, Harvard, Utica and Hartwick — and won the first three games, but fell short to Hartwick.
"We didn't play as well as we would have liked with a disappointing loss to Hartwick, but we put ourselves in a good position for the Eastern Tournament," said Sarah Glick '10.
Brown 16, Connecticut College 4
The Bears (21-13) didn't hold back and brought their intensity early in the game against Connecticut College, holding a 5-1 advantage in the first quarter and a 10-1 lead at halftime.
The Bears went on to outscore Connecticut College 6-3 in the second half to win the game, 16-4.
Herald Metro Editor Joanna Wohlmuth '11 led the Bears with six goals. Glick had three goals and four assists, Lauren Presant '10 had two goals, and Bethany Kwoka '12, Rita Bullwinkel '11, Katherine Stanton '11, Rory Stanton '09 and Allyson Schumacher '12 each scored one goal.
Brown 8, Harvard 7 (2OT)
Last week Head Coach Felix Mercado said, "It is hard to beat a team three times," which proved to be true in the game on Saturday against Harvard. Brown previously beat Harvard, 11-10 and 7-6, in games where the Bears controlled the early action and the Crimson had to come back.
The tables turned on Saturday when the Bears were down 6-1 at halftime.
"I looked at my assistant coach and said, ‘We're going to win this game,'" Mercado said. "We were down because we weren't executing in certain areas. But if they can score six goals in a half, we can score six goals in a half, and if they can hold us to one, we can hold them to one. I had a gut feeling we were going to win because the girls just have too much pride. I am very fortunate to have a group of girls that listen and pull it together."
Mercado's gut feeling was right, as Brown fought back and outscored Harvard 6-1 in the second half. Glick had the tying goal to make it 7-7 with only 26 seconds left in the game.
"I felt a lot of pressure but we've pretty much scored every time we have run the play," said Glick. "I was nervous but confident everyone would do their part and we would score."
Neither team put in a goal in the first overtime, but Presant put one in the back of the net with 1:22 left in the second overtime to capture the win for the Bears.
Stephanie Laing '10 had 10 saves, while Glick and Presant each had three goals, and Rory Stanton had two.
Brown 4, Utica 3
The Bears took it easy against Utica on Sunday and pulled off a 4-3 win.
"We went into the game wanting to let Utica enjoy their last game of the season," Mercado said. "We just wanted to score a goal a quarter and be disciplined on defense. We scored a goal each quarter and Utica scored all three in the fourth quarter. Although we didn't want it to be that close, our intentions were to not score many goals."
Goalkeeper Misa Scharfen '12 had 14 saves and Brown's four goals came from Kwoka, Bullwinkel, Wohlmuth and Samantha Ryu '12.
Hartwick 11, Brown 7
The toughest battle of the weekend came against Hartwick, with whom the Bears had split two games with. In the first matchup Hartwick beat Brown, 13-10. Brown won the most recent game, 8-7.
Hartwick outscored Brown by a 3-1 margin in the first quarter, but the Bears fought back with two goals from Glick to go into halftime down 4-3.
"They came out really strong and we didn't necessarily come out as strong as we usually do," Glick said.
Rory Stanton tied the game, 4-4, in the third quarter, but Hartwick capitalized on Brown's next few mistakes and scored three goals. They went on to outscore Brown 4-3, and win, 11-7.
"We controlled the game, but Hartwick waited for us to make mistakes and then capitalized on them," Mercado said. "But I think we are no longer intimidated by them."
Laing had 15 saves, while Glick had three goals, and Katherine Stanton, Rory Stanton, Wohlmuth and Kwoka each had one.
The Bears will play again next weekend for the Eastern Tournament hosted by Harvard, where they will be seeded fifth. Glick said they will prepare for the tournament by "staying focused, practicing as hard as we normally do, and keeping our heads in the right places."
