Once again, the Harvard men's water polo team came up short against Brown, losing, 10-5, in the finals of the Ivy League tournament yesterday in Providence.

With the game tied, 5-5, Brown reeled off five unanswered goals to pull out the victory over the Crimson (14-12), which has suffered through several futile years of playing second-fiddle to Brown in New England water polo.

"Overall, we did well. We played hard in the first half, but we let them get away from us in the third period and lost control and morale in the fourth," said senior Eric Bentley, who scored three goals from his hole-man position. "Our main problem in the second half was that no one was a big offensive threat. We needed a better balance between our outside shooting, driving and hole-play. We'll work on coordinating our offense this week."

The Crimson had led the final midway through the second quarter, 4-3, and held the Bruins, who will be ranked number one at next weekend's New England championships, to the 5-5 tie at halftime.

"Defensively, the entire team did well, but our offense in the second half was erratic," Co-Captain Nick Branca said. "Particularly, our man-up situations floundered. We just need to diversify our offense and work on some new picks and drives and we'll be in good shape for the New England tournament."

The Crimson advanced to the finals of the Ivy tournament with wins Saturday over Penn (14-2) and Princeton (8-3).

Brown will once again host this weekend's tournament, in which Harvard should have another opportunity to avenge its losses to the Bruins. But this time, it will be for real, as only the top two finishers at the New England tourney advances to Easterns in Annapolis, Md., the following weekend.

The Crimson will probably be seeded third behind the Bruins and the University of Massachusetts. Although Harvard has lost to UMass twice already this year, Bentley remains highly optimistic.

"We're a better team," Bentley said. "We just have a tendency to play down to the level of our opponent. We have a good chance of beating UMass and giving Brown a tough fight."