For the Harvard women's water polo team, the difference between a trip to the national championships and a trip back to Cambridge was Bucknell's Marla Cuatilli.

After storming through its early competition this weekend in the Eastern Championships at Bucknell University, the Crimson (19-2), the eventual third-place finisher in the tournament, played the host team Saturday in the semifinals.

But the Crimson couldn't stop the Bison's Cuatilli from roaming. Net result: Eight Cuatilli goals and an 11-8 Bucknell victory over Harvard.

"We didn't do the things we had to do on defense," Harvard Coach Chris Hafferty said.

The loss to Bucknell kept Harvard from making yesterday's championship game and, more importantly, from heading out to Santa Barbara, Calif., for the national championships May 19-21. Harvard, the second seed in this weekend's tournament, had to place either first or second to earn a trip California way.

Instead, after dropping a 13-3 decision yesterday morning to defending champion Slippery Rock, Harvard faced familiar rival MIT in the third-place game and ended its season with a 10-6 victory over the Engineers.

"We were very disappointed [not to make the national championships,]" Hafferty said. "We thought we were a better team than Bucknell, but we didn't prove it."

Yesterday morning, Harvard shut down Slippery Rock's frontcourt offense, but the Crimson couldn't stop the officials from blowing the whistles. Nine ejections were called in the game against Harvard. Slippery Rock scored seven times with the Crimson down a player.

Time to regroup against the Engineers. And the Crimson, which defeated MIT, 12-10, at the MIT Invitational two weeks ago, did just that. Led by Gillian Salton and Tara Gustilo, Harvard came back against the Engineers for the 10-6 win.

"MIT came out really hard," Hafferty said. "We had to settle down and start playing our game."

In its first two games of the tournament, the Crimson defeated Michigan, 12-7, and Penn State, 11-5, before losing to the Bison.

But even without a trip to Santa Barbara, Hafferty still called this year's squad "the most-well rounded team" he has coached.

"We graduated 12 seniors," Hafferty said. "I thought it would take us a lot longer to develop. But the players pulled together quicker than I expected."