In an exciting battle with 16th-ranked Harvard, the No. 13 Massachusetts men’s water polo team triumphed 9-6, in front of an impassioned partisan crowd last night at Amherst College’s Pratt Pool.

In their second and final home game of the season, UMass kept Harvard at bay for almost the entire game, despite some early letdowns. Led by senior Mike Foley (four goals), the Minutemen used an improved offensive attack to defeat the Crimson, and won on a breakaway goal from junior Chad Arnold late in the fourth quarter.

In the final session, Harvard struck first with 4:53 remaining, on a tally from junior Alex Fisher. The Minutemen didn’t have to wait long, as one minute later they received a goal from Adam Moore on a penalty shot. Arnold’s goal, however, was all Massachusetts would need, as it held the Crimson to six goals for the game.

After a Harvard timeout with one minute left, UMass punctuated the message with a final tally from Foley. His fourth of the match came with only 23 seconds remaining. While the game plan for UMass in the final minute was to “press back hard [and] maintain possession to stall the time out,” according to Head Coach Russ Yarworth, Foley’s goal came as a bit of a shock from a team looking to run the clock down

“At that point [though], you can’t take the ball out of a shooter’s hand,” Yarworth said.

Heading into the second half, the Minutemen came out firing on all cylinders, due to a halftime meeting in which the seniors made their feelings known about the state of the game.

“During halftime, the seniors said ‘look, this is our last home game. We don’t get many of them, and we’re not gonna lose,” Yarworth said.

Physical play in the first half set the tone for the second, which was slower overall. Massachusetts was the first to score, when junior Ricardo Puig netted his 16th of the season on a pass from fellow junior Justin Houck. The next three minutes of the quarter belonged to the defense, as neither team put together any quality chances until Arnold’s goal with 2:28 remaining.

“Harvard laid the defense on us,” Yarworth said. “They play that style, they’re a very aggressive, pressing team, they don’t play much zone, a lot more grasping and holding. I knew with the type of defense [Harvard] plays, the goals were going to come from the two-meter position.”

The UMass defense was less-than stellar in the early parts of the match, but in the second period, the defense improved overall, and there was no scoring for almost four minutes, after one fluke goal for the Crimson off of a UMass deflection. Massachusetts showed some especially tremendous defense during this time, and held Harvard scoreless throughout a two- minute flurry put on by the Crimson. With 2:25 remaining, however, the visitors broke the suspense with a goal from junior Mike Masterson, to take the lead 5-4.

The early minutes were full of exciting offensive plays, though many of Harvard’s scoring chances came as a result of defensive mistakes by the Maroon and White.

“We were a little sloppy at first, with a couple of outside shots.” Yarworth said. “You can blame that on the field defense, or you can blame it on the goalie, but it was basically sloppiness.”

The UMass offensive front was impressive early on, with three unanswered goals, including two from Foley, and one from senior Adam Moore. But Harvard was able to strike back with one minute left, on a tally from Masterson. The scoring continued through the final minute of the first quarter, with one more tally from each side, including another from Foley to bring the score to 4-2 at the end of the period.

The Maroon and White struck back quickly, however, with a goal from senior Antonio Maldonado, off a fine pass from senior Carlos Ramos. Senior goalkeeper J.R. VanderWall, who finished the night with 12 saves on 18 shots, kept the score knotted at five with some great stops late in the half.

The game plan for UMass was much the same.

“We don’t want to score a lot of goals to win the game,” Yarworth said. “We want to stop the other team from scoring to win.”

Up next for the Maroon and White is the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship in Cambridge. The team is looking forward to the tournament, which Yarworth called, “a great tournament, because it’s a nopressure tournament. Win or lose, it doesn’t really affect what’s going on in the Northern Division.”

UMass will face Bucknell first, and if they are victorious, will then meet the winner of the Princeton/Brown matchup on Sunday. If the Minutemen are defeated, they will square off with the loser of the Princeton/Brown game.