CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Coming off its 10th consecutive season with 20+ wins, Harvard men's water polo is set to begin the 2025 campaign at Blodgett Pool on Aug. 30 with the Bruno Classic as part of its 30-game schedule this upcoming fall.
Ted Minnis sits just six wins away from his 300
th career victory as head coach of the men's program as the Crimson enter the 2025 season.
Highlights this year include hosting the Bruno Classic and Harvard Invitational, and two trips to California to compete against the reigning national champion UCLA Bruins, Long Beach State, before returning later in the season for the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament.
Offensive threats
Dean Strauser and Jack Burgardt are set to return this season, with the goalkeeping duo of
Tanner Furtak and
Oliver Price also back between the pipes, while
Mason Hunt and Jake Tsotadze will lead the Crimson in 2025.
Harvard opens the year with a four-game weekend at home, facing Bucknell and Fordham on Saturday, Aug. 30, before returning Sunday to meet Gannon and Wagner. The Crimson are 8-3 at the Bruno Classic over the last three seasons. Harvard played Wagner in the season opener last season and cruised to a 17-8 win after
Dean Strauser,
Jack Burghardt, and
Mason Hunt led the offense.
The following weekend, Harvard heads south to Princeton, N.J., for the Princeton Invitational from Sept. 6–7, with opponents and game times yet to be announced.
The Crimson then embarks on its first California road trip of the season from Friday, Sept. 12, through Sunday, Sept. 14, visiting national powers UCLA and Long Beach State, before finishing the weekend with Cal State Fullerton and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps across three days in Southern California.
Harvard is set to play the reigning national champions for just the fourth time in program history and the first time since 2022. Harvard is also set to face Long Beach for the first time since the Bruno Classic in 2022, where it fell in a heavily competitive battle to open the season.
After a brief break, Harvard returns to the East Coast for conference play, traveling to New York and New Jersey for a trio of games on Oct. 4–5, taking on LIU, Iona, and reigning NWPC champions, the Princeton Tigers.
Since 2021, Harvard has only lost one regular-season game against a conference opponent who was not the Princeton Tigers. Boasting a 35–6 conference record over the last four seasons, Harvard has not lost to Iona or LIU in that span.
A marquee matchup with rival Brown awaits on Saturday, Oct. 11, in Providence before the Crimson return to Blodgett on Sunday, Oct. 12, to host MIT in their conference home opener. A much-anticipated rematch from the NWPC semifinals will see Harvard look to avenge a hard-fought loss to Brown in its last meeting against its Ivy rival.
Harvard will then host the annual Harvard Invitational from Saturday, Oct. 18, to Sunday, Oct. 19, welcoming Wagner, Salem, and George Washington to Cambridge for a three-game weekend.
The Crimson will make their second trip west from Friday, Oct. 24, through Sunday, Oct. 26, for the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament in Santa Clara, Calif., squaring off with Pacific, Pepperdine, Air Force, and host Santa Clara over three days before returning home to finish out the conference slate.
Back on the East Coast, Harvard closes out the regular season with six games in November. The team travels to MIT on Saturday, Nov. 1, before returning to Blodgett that evening to close out the season series with Brown at 7:00 p.m.
The final homestand of the year includes back-to-back matchups with LIU and Iona on Saturday, Nov. 8, followed by a final showdown against Princeton on Sunday, Nov. 9, before the playoffs begin.
The 2025 NWPC Championships are set for Friday, Nov. 21, through Sunday, Nov. 23, at Brown University's Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in Providence, R.I., where the Crimson will look to claim their first conference crown since 2019.
