This past weekend, the Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps water polo teams jointly hosted the Claremont Convergence Tournament, considered to be one of the premier water polo tournaments. Games were played throughout the weekend at both schools’ pools, described by P-P coach and tournament host Gary Troyer as two of the best facilities in the West. When both pools were built in 1990, Troyer and the CMC coach at the time, longtime friend Mike Sutton, decided they would host this tournament every October when the weather is as near-to-perfect as it can be for Southern California.

Typically, six East Coast schools come out, and this year was no exception, with Ivy League powerhouses Brown and Harvard making the trip. The tournament also featured six SCIAC schools, two Hawaiian teams, Chapman Universtiy and UC Santa Cruz. The stands are unusually packed with visiting fans, typically the parents of the East Coast kids who have their water polo roots in SoCal.

It also gives the Easterners the chance to play outside and add some nice color and health to their withered bodies, which rot away in harsh New England autumns and the pressures of cutthroat Ivy politics.

Fall being the most romantic of all seasons, I naturally got to thinking about love. What I came to realize during the weekend’s games was that team sports are like a young marriage: there are good times, bad times, growth and sharing. Underlying all of this is a mutual affection that can be extended to love.

Obviously, I have never been married. Yet, from what I have learned from countless movies, particularly Jerry Maguire and more recently from Friends with the marriage of Chandler and Monica, the learning curve for a young couple taking the leap into matrimony is similar to the change a young team of water polo players, namely our friends here at Pomona-Pitzer, go through during the span of a season or even just a weekend.

I would like to share with you some thoughts on the subject while likening the whole thing to the tournament I watched this weekend. In doing so, I hope to provide the reader with both an informative reaction to the weekend’s tournament as well as some things to ponder if you may ever find yourself in love and considering the plan for the rest of your life.

P-P’s first game on Friday afternoon was against Boston College, described as a very physical team by the Pomona-Pitzer coaching staff. As is the way early on in a relationship when the passion is most intense, Pomona played with an intensity and desire that I haven’t seen all season. "This was probably the best game we’ve played all season," commented head coach Jim Armstrong after the game. Despite the great sex, some men are not great finishers, and P-P lost the game 5-3.

"Let me explain, darling," he says to her after. One Boston College goal was actually blocked by goalie Jamie Love ’04; however, he was just a bit inside the net, and it counted. Two other goals came on penalty shots, which are nearly impossible to defend from only four meters away. A young couple may get swindled by crooked realtors when buying their first house. Similarly, Pomona-Pitzer was denied a victory based upon a few mistakes that come from inexperience.

As for goalie Jamie Love, he showed major star power over the weekend, beginning with his overall sensational performance in the first game. He stopped 14 shots, which is a phenomenal amount in water polo. "That was by far his best game…goaltending is all about timing and confidence, which he was missing in the beginning, but he has really come on," commented Armstrong. Love can make us do incredible things, and he showed that after five years away from the sport (he is a junior college transfer), he hasn’t forgotten how to play.

So after the strong first game, this relationship of water polo was showing a lot of promise. However, I have found in my own experience that a great high is usually followed by an equally large low. Harvard was the competition this time, a team that P-P has beaten the last two years and knocked out of the top twenty. (Yet, much like how one will begin to invade the other’s personal space, an issue that can be overcome at first by communication and "girls night in" or "guys night out" techniques, it is never fully solved until it comes to a head.)

"We’ve overcome this before honey," can be the mantra for such a period in the young marriage. However, in this case, Harvard was a problem that seemed to be too tough to rely on inspiration from past victories, and they got out to a nasty early lead, with three quick goals in the first three minutes.

The effort to overcome such a problem must be shared equally by all parties in the relationship; however, it seemed at times that responsibility was grossly disproportionate. Ben Speicher ’03 was trying to carry the team on his shoulders on both offense and defense. Love was put in a similar situation in the net, and while stopping many shots, he needed help from his defense which was giving away too many open looks.

Temptation, coveting the externally beautiful things in life that are usually too expensive to afford early in marriage when neither has really established a career yet, can be trouble. Looking at Harvard in their terry cloth bathrobes emblazoned with their school insignia made possible through a $20 billion endowment, it was tempting to consider transferring to such a place where luxury seemed to come at no expense. Our Sagehens couldn’t help but notice Harvard’s extravagance and began to look at their own outdated orange uniforms, beginning to show their age, and think "is this the life I used to dream about?" Perhaps it was this distraction that eventually carried Harvard to the 12-3 win, a victory that they pounded into Pomona up until the very end.

As if saying "You will never be one of us, swine," Harvard, victory already in hand, played it out through the final seconds and scored their twelfth and final goal with only one second left. The good ole boys from Beantown loved it and cheered noisily throughout: "‘Aht a way Hah-vahd! Them turkeys ain’t so smaht!" The words hung in the air for a considerable time after the final buzzer. Were we really the Harvard of the West? The Sagehens had been gutted, and they weren’t bleeding crimson.

The games continued on Saturday. It was a new day, a new beginning. Had our team been to counseling over the night? Had Friday night brought any answers not found in the bottom of a plastic cup? A great first half against Brown University, with our heroes down only 3-2 after two periods, seemed to indicate that a little time apart could really bring the team closer.

Early in the second half, P-P again seemed to be getting tired of trying to make something work that perhaps wasn’t supposed to. Yet, they refused to give up and began to use fancy techniques like playing Ben Komer ’02, the fastest swimmer on the team, who injected energy and a little scoring into the offense and brought the Hens close, down by only two goals late in the fourth period. Yet, taking each other to a fancy dinner or buying kinky sex books does not always solve the larger problem, and Pomona did in fact lose the game 8-5.

In the fourth game, the marriage was once again experiencing difficulty in communicating its feelings to each other. This time, a fancy foreigner had entered the scene and was trying to swoon our significant other with promises of the nice life, living it up on the beaches of Hawaii, sipping mai-tais and considering Don Hoe "a personal friend."

This description sums up Chaminade University, out of Honolulu, Hawaii, a strong polo team that has recruited European talent for its team.

Chaminade’s offense was solid, flashy at times, and left Pomona stunned. Chaminade used Pomona and took with it an 11-2 victory while leaving the Sagehens with only frustration and a need for yet another fresh start.

"We’re a really young team. There’s a lot of guys playing out of position, but they’re doing it for the better of the team," said Coach Armstrong. Yes, this is true of Pomona. They are inexperienced, yet the affection they have for each other is enough that they must and do act in ways to nurture their relationship into a love that will not only bring satisfaction with life, but with it victories and success in sport.