The men's water polo team went into the weekend's Northern Championships at Harvard as the No. 2 seed and emerged on Sunday with a second-place finish.
On Saturday, the Bears dismantled Queens College 13-3 and then dismissed Ivy rival Harvard 9-4. But Brown could not match its stellar performance in Sunday's title game, falling 22-6 to top-seeded No. 9 St. Francis College.
Highly ranked entering the tournament, Brown did not start out playing like a second-seeded team in Saturday's opening match. The Bears had numerous early opportunities to score but were unable to put any shots in the back of the net against seventh-seeded Queens. The Bears' lackluster play allowed the Knights to take a 3-2 halftime lead.
Having soundly beaten Queens 17-6 earlier in the season, Brown was never concerned about the outcome of Saturday's game, according to co-captain Stu Thompson '07. The Bears came out roaring in the second half, taking better shots and significantly outplaying the Knights. Brown tallied three goals in the third quarter and seven in the fourth, while Queens only managed to score one more goal in the final 16 minutes - a meaningless tally in the fourth.
The second match of the day was the highly-anticipated opportunity for revenge against third-seeded Harvard. The teams had split their two earlier contests this year, with the Bears defeating the Crimson in September but falling 8-7 in double overtime on Oct. 19.
On Saturday, though, Brown had the final word. With solid play in both ends of the pool, the Bears took control of the game early. Brown led Harvard 4-1 at the end of the first half and outscored the Crimson 5-3 in the second half. The tremendous team effort was apparent on the score sheet: Six different Brown swimmers scored in the match.
"This was the best game of the year for us," said co-captain Luke Samson '07. "We had good defense, good offense. We put everything together well. Our goalie, Kent Holland ('10), got everything."
Hank Weintraub '09 made "two amazing goals," according to Thompson. In the second quarter, Weintraub scored his first goal, a bar-down shot, from five meters out. His second goal came in the following quarter when he made a donut shot - or a shot made right over the goalie's head. Harvard goalie Jay Connolly was Weintraub's former prep teammate at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles.
Despite the Bears' dominant play on Saturday, the next day's championship game turned out to be a different story. From the outset, Brown was outclassed by St. Francis. The Terriers were too quick and skillful for the Bears and wore down over the course of the game, leading to the 22-6 loss.
"It was the worst loss I ever had (while) at Brown," Samson said. "We usually don't let any team score that many points. Even last year when we were playing against (the University of Southern California), who were ranked number one in the nation, we only let them score 11 points."
Thompson was similarly disappointed with Sunday's game.
"We couldn't find our offense, and by the time we did it was too late," he said. "We also really couldn't shut down their offense. It was a frustrating game."
Despite the disappointing setback, Brown could get another crack at the Terriers in the near future. As a result of their second-place finish, the Bears qualified for the Eastern Championships. In the opening round in two weeks, they will face Bucknell University, the team which ended Bruno's season last year in the same tournament.
