The road to Indianapolis and the national championship finally begins in earnest this weekend for the Harvard men's water polo team. And the road begins in the Crimson's own backyard with a New England League invitational at Blodgett Pool.

Six teams will be participating in a five-match round-robin, but for all practical purposes, it is a three-team battle. Brown (ranked 13th in the country), UMass (ranked 17th), and Harvard (ranked 19th) will all be shooting for the crown which will determine the all-important number-one seeding for the New England Championships in two weeks.

The seeding takes on added significance when one scans the East Coast water polo picture--three good teams; only two qualify for the Eastern Championships; number-one seed need only beat a weak-sister number-four seed to gain a berth in the Easterns.

"It's first place or nothing this weekend," sophomore Pete Richards said, "and if we take this tournament, you can pencil us into the Easterns."

Tonight's game against MIT at 6:30 p.m. threatens to be a joke--the Crimson has demolished the Engineers three times already this season.

Saturday will be a big test for Harvard as they face UMass in an 11:30 a.m. matchup. The Crimson are looking to avenge a narrow loss to the Minutemen earlier this season. Harvard faces Yale at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.

Sunday brings with it the greatly-anticipated Harvard-Brown matchup, which promises to determine the invitational champion. The Crimson has yet to face the Bruins this year, but this will be the first of potentially four straight weekends of head-to-head competition. The winner of Sunday's match grabs the momentum for the Ivies and the Easterns.

"We want to send a message to Brown and UMass this weekend," sophomore Todd Forman said. "We want to show that we're aggressive, mentally tough and consistently able to play four strong quarters." at Blodgett Pool

Friday, October 20

6:30 Harvard vs. MIT

7:45 Brown vs. Boston College

9:00 Yale vs. UMass