In the sweltering heat of Blodgett Pool, the Harvard women's water polo team split a pair of games Saturday, vanquishing Brown, 9-5, but succumbing to Queens' College in overtime, 6-5.

Both games were part of a weekend tournament in which Harvard took second place.

The Queen's game began very well for the Crimson, as it jumped out to a first-quarter 3-1 lead on goals from Lynley Ogilvie, freshman Stacey Moran, and Co-Captain Catherine Ysreal.

When Moran tallied again at the start of the second half, the squad moved to a commanding 4-1 lead.

Sensing defeat, the visitors began to eschew an unsuccessful inside game in favor of outside shooting.

"Queens is a club team," said Harvard Coach Chris Hafferty after the game, "which means that some of them have been playing together for many years. They know how to adjust when things go wrong."

"They took some chances," said sophomore Emily Ozer.

And the gambles worked.

Just two minutes into the fourth quarter, Queens had scored on three long shots to tie the game at four.

Hafferty noted that Harvard committed too many fouls and had to play one-man down too often: "We made a lot of little mistakes, a lot of little fouls which hurt us."

And at the start of the overtime, a Crimson player had to leave the game for holding. Within three seconds of her departure, the Knights had scored to possess their first lead of the day, 5-4.

The game was not over, however. Co-Captain Kelley Withy grabbed a loose ball in front of the Queens net, faked the netminder into the air, waited for the duped goalie to fall back down, and then lofted the ball over her head to tie the score at 5-5.

But Queens' outside game still proved to be Harvard's nemesis, as a shot from 20 yards out closed the scoring at 6-5 with 36 seconds left in the second overtime.

The loss blemished the Crimson's previously perfect 9-0 record, and came at the hands of a team it had beaten just last week during a tournament at Brown.

"It's better that we lose now than in the Nationals," Withy said.