Harvard's water polo team solidified its number-two ranking in New England this weekend with victories over Yale, MIT and Columbia, but in an eagerly awaited rematch fell to top-seeded Brown, 11-5, at the New England Invitational in Providence, R.I., Saturday.

The four games brought the aquamen's season slate to 17-3, with two of the losses coming against Brown.

The memory of a tough 11-7 defeat to the Bruins two weeks ago at Blodgett still fresh in their minds, the Crimson aquamen came out gunning for revenge Saturday. Goals by Dave Fasi, Rich Guerra and Phil Atkinson propelled Harvard to a 3-2 first quarter lead. But Brown regrouped and shut down Harvard's attack over the next two periods, finally yielding two goals in the last frame with the game well in hand.

Harvard's lack of competitiveness against Brown can be partially attributed to a shoulder injury suffered earlier in the week by Steve Munatones. The sophomore sat out the other games to save himself for Brown, but it did little good as his performance, especially on defense, was well below par.

Meanwhile, the Bruins outplayed the aquamen in almost all facets of the game, combining a speedy attack with aggressive defense. "Their team played a much more physical game than we did," Harvard co-captain Houston Hall said yesterday, "and they had the depth to outswim us all game."

Because of a foul-up concerning transportation, the aquamen arrived in Providence late on Saturday morning, and had to jump in the pool against Yale with only seven men and without any warmup.

Despite the handicap, the depleted corps from Harvard had little trouble with the Elis. Bolstered by the appearance of the rest of the team--including starting goalie Rich Reid--after the first period, the Crimson swam past Yale, 5-3.

The Bulldogs, fired-up as usual for their arch-rivals, failed to penetrate Harvard's defense and stayed close only because of poor shooting by the aquamen.

After a little practicing, Harvard fared better against MIT, dumping the Engineers, 14-5, for the third straight time this fall. The Crimson featured a balanced attack as Atkinson, Guerra, Courtney Roberts, Hall and Tim Maximoff accounted for ten of the 14 goals with two apiece.

Releasing Frustrations

Following the loss to Brown, the aquamen released their frustration by swamping a hapless Columbia squad, 13-5. Hawaiian scoring machine Fasi got Harvard off to a fast start with four tallies in the first period and added a fifth before hanging up his swimsuit for the day. On defense, Reid watched from the sidelines as replacements Mehmet Oz and freshman Brian Graham consistently thwarted the Lions' attach from the goal.

"We played very well as a team considering the number of games we played in a short amount of time, but we didn't play well enough because we didn't take Brown," coach Steve Pike said yesterday.

In fact, including Friday night's game against Williams, the aquamen played five of the top six teams in New England, all within 24 hours this weekend. Harvard showed it belongs as the sixth team on the list by winning four and dropping only one.

THE NOTEBOOK: Look for the Crimson at Blodgett Tuesday night as it faces an underdog team from Boston University... The aquamen get a third shot at Brown in two weeks at the New England Championships, to be hosted by Harvard.