2023 Harvard University Men’s Water Polo Schedule
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Friends of Harvard Water Polo Head Coach Ted Minnis announced the Crimson men’s water polo will open the 2023 season with a pair of games at Blodgett Pool on September 2 as part of its 2023 schedule. The Crimson will play 15 games in Cambridge throughout the 2023 season, including Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC).
Harvard is coming off a 2022 season which saw the program finish in third place in the NWPC with a 21-9 record. The 2022 season was highlighted by multiple milestones including, first-year James Rozolis-Hill‘s rookie season. The first-year scored 123 goals – shattering the previous single-season goal record. Entering the season Minnis, sits 24 wins away from his 250th win as head coach of the men’s program.
Harvard will open the season by hosting games during Brown University’s Bruno Classic on Saturday-Sunday, September 2-3. Harvard will face Wagner College and Bucknell University on Saturday before closing the weekend with McKendree University and Pepperdine University.
The Crimson then travels down I-95 to Princeton, N.J., to face off against George Washington University, Bucknell and Fordham University at the Princeton Invite on Saturday-Sunday, September 9-10. Harvard will play George Washington and Bucknell as part of a Saturday doubleheader on September 9, before another facing defending Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Champion Fordham on September 10. Last season, Harvard defeated Fordham in an early season matchup by a score of 15-9.
The Crimson meets Mercyhurst University on Sunday, September 24 at home in Blodgett Pool before beginning an East Coast road trip.
As part of the East Coast swing, Harvard returns to Princeton for its first matchup with its NWPC rival/defending NWPC Champion Tigers on September 30. The Crimson will have a morning tilt on Sunday, October 1, at Long Island University in Brooklyn before closing the weekend at Iona University in New Rochelle, N.Y.
The road trip continues the following weekend as the program heads across Cambridge, Mass., to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Saturday, October 7. The league road trip concludes on Sunday, October 8, before a quick trip down to Providence, R.I., for a game at Brown.
Harvard returns home for the first time since September 24 to host the Harvard Invitational on Saturday-Sunday, October 14-15. The program will play four games over the weekend, beginning with defending Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Champion Pomona-Pitzer Colleges and the University of California-Merced on October 14, before closing the weekend with rematches against George Washington and Wagner on October 15.
The Crimson then heads to California for the 2023 Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara. The only California trip this season, Harvard opens the tournament with the host Broncos on Friday, October 20, before a Saturday, October 21, doubleheader against California Baptist University and San Jose State University. The program will close the annual trip to California with University of the Pacific on Sunday, October 22.
To close the season, Harvard is home at Blodgett Pool for the next six games beginning with Iona and Long Island on Saturday, October 28. To close the weekend Harvard will face Princeton on Sunday, October 29.
Opening the month of November, the Crimson will play its final three games of the regular season against Brown, MIT and Connecticut College. The program opens the weekend with Brown on Saturday, November 4 before the final doubleheader of the season on Sunday, November 5 against MIT and Connecticut College.
The Crimson will get a week off before hosting the NWPC Championship on Friday-Sunday, November 17-19 at Blodgett Pool. Harvard will aim to claim the programs’ fourth league championship and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship berth in the past eight years following prior crowns in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
Information courtesy Harvard University Athletics Communications
