CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Harvard men's water polo team begins NWPC play Saturday at No. 9 Princeton with a Noon ET match-up on ESPN+. The Crimson are 3-9 on the season after snapping a seven-game slide with a win over Johns Hopkins in Brown's Bruno Invite last Saturday. The Tigers are 11-1 overall and winners of three straight. The weekend's action continues on Sunday when Harvard crosses state lines into New York for a 9 a.m. game at LIU followed by a 2 p.m. contest at Iona.
About the Crimson
Harvard got back to its winning ways when it registered a 17-13 win over Johns Hopkins. The Crimson nearly ended their losing streak at six games in the first of two from Providence, but ultimately fell to Concordia, 19-18, at the buzzer. Seven of Harvard's nine losses have come against ranked opponents and four of nine losses have come by two goals or less. Junior
Dean Strauser carried the offense last weekend with nine goals, including four in the win over the Blue Jays. Senior, and reigning NWPC Most Valuable Player,
Jack Burghardt and first-year
Clay Carrington has regularly been atop the scoresheet for Harvard this season. The Crimson employed a platoon in goal through non-conference play with first-year
Jonas Ransford and senior
Oliver Price sharing the duties in the cage.
NWPC Rivals
Harvard and Princeton last met in the 2025 NWPC Championship Game, which was won by the Tigers, 13-10, to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Strauser led the Crimson on that nine with three goals and three assists. All-time, Harvard trails the series with Princeton, 37-28. Harvard's six-player senior class is 3-5 against the Tigers in their career, including a 3-3 mark in the regular season. The Crimson have lost back-to-back to Princeton with its last win coming nearly one year ago on Oct. 5, 2025. Harvard took that one on the road, 13-12, thanks to an early run ignited by a pair of
Connor Kim goals. Harvard is 5-0 all-time against LIU in a series that started in 2022 and is 52-19 vs. Iona, which includes 24 consecutive wins dating back to 2013.
