Senior Peter Kaiser said it best: "It wasn't pretty, but we pulled it out."

In a very physical, error-filled contest, the Harvard men's water polo team defeated MIT, 11-6, before 150 screaming MIT fans at Alumni Pool last night. With the victory, the Crimson (now 4-0) preserved its undefeated status against the Engineers since the inception of water polo as a varsity sport at Harvard in 1981.

"This was their night to beat us," Kaiser said. "They have a good team this year, they had us in their pool, they had the stands packed, and they were pumped up. They were out to get us."

But the Crimson was prepared for this game. The aquamen had practiced in the cozy confines of the Malkin Athletic Center pool rather than the expanses of Blodgett Pool to prepare for MIT's smaller-then-regulation 25-yard playing tank.

But there were still adjustments to be made. Both squads wound up playing a very physical game, which produced many 30-second ejections. One player from each team was disqualified for picking up three ejections apiece.

The physical game led to sloppy play. Repeatedly, the Engineers (now 1-3) were victimized by offensive fouls and ball-immersion violations, thus wasting valuable scoring opportunities.

The Crimson, on the other hand, squandered very few scoring chances early in the game, as it waltzed out to a 5-1 lead in just eight minutes.

But after that, Harvard's offense sputtered, and the Crimson was forced to rely on its defense to carry it through some offensive surges by a fired-up MIT squad.

One important defensive segment occured near the end of the third period.

Two Harvard players released their defensive assignments, anticipating a 35-second shot-clock violation by MIT. But one of the other three Harvard players was called for a penalty, and MIT was temporarily up six men to three. Harvard escaped the situation unscathed.

MIT finally netted a man-advantage goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation to pull within three goals, 8-5.

But that was as close as the feisty Engineers would get, as Tri-Captain Bill Wolff scored his third goal with 3:06 left to put the game on ice.

"We came to do our job," said Kaiser. "We came to win."

THE NOTEBOOK: Sophomore Nick Branca joined Wolff in the hat-trick department, the second time this season he has reached that milestone...Harvard's "B" squad defeated MIT, 17-5, in an exhibition contest earlier in the evening...The Crimson next sees action Oct. 2 versus UMass at Blodgett.