No. 13 Harvard women’s water polo team secured two wins at Blodgett Pool, defeating Siena 19-5 and VMI 23-7, improving their season record to 18-1.
In the opening match against Siena, Harvard established a commanding lead early, scoring six unanswered goals in the first quarter. By halftime, the Crimson led 10-0. Four players—Lucy Levenberg-Penklis, Beatrice Hearey, Sofia Del Villar, and Heidi Heffelfinger—scored in the opening period. Sofia Del Villar contributed eight points with a hat-trick and five assists. It was the first time this season that four different Harvard players achieved hat-tricks in a single game.
Additional contributions came from Lucy Berkman with one goal and three assists, Maya O’Dea with a hat-trick and two assists, Petra Klemm with two goals and two assists, and Emma Gilbert alongside Levenberg-Penklis also netting hat-tricks. In goal, Orli Cooper made seven saves while Sutchie Ofori-Nyako added one save late in the game.
Against VMI, Harvard again started quickly as Heffelfinger scored within thirty seconds. The team ended the first quarter ahead 7-0 after Hearey recorded an early hat-trick. By halftime, Harvard led 14-2. Eight Crimson players scored at least twice during the match.
Hearey finished with four goals and three assists; Heffelfinger had a hat-trick; Levenberg-Penklis added three goals, two assists, and a steal; Ella Schneider recorded two goals and four assists; Wang and O’Dea each tallied three steals. In net for Harvard were Cooper (two saves) and Ofori-Nyako (three saves).
Harvard will travel to California next week for seven consecutive games on the West Coast starting March 14 against UC San Diego.
