Harvard's men's lacrosse team opened its season with a heartbreaking 12-11 overtime loss to cross-town rival Boston College yesterday in a game given a bizarre spin by the weather gods.

First, because of inclement weather in recent weeks, the game was played on the turf field of a hated cross-town rival of both the Crimson and the Eagles--Boston University.

And as if that weren't enough, the game was interrupted about a third of the way through with an alternating downpour of snow, sleet and rain.

"It was just a weird, weird day," junior midfielder Steve Gaffney said. "It felt odd to play out on the turf in the first place and then it started snowing. It was strange--it is sort of hard to characterize in words."

Going into the game, the Eagles were somewhat of an enigma to the Crimson.

"We didn't know that much about them, outside of the fact we beat them in a tough game last year and they lost to Brown in a game already'" coach Scott Anderson said. "I wouldn't say that it surprised me, but they proved to be a very good team--very well balanced."

BC's prowess, along with a little off-season rust, ended up spelling doom for the Crimson.

"The snow really wasn't that much of a factor so, much as the fact that we only played at BU three times this year before today and we haven't been in a game situation yet this year," sophomore midfielder Carl Talmo said. "Also, BC was ready for us,"

"They were good, "Gaffney said. "They played us hard throughout the game and never gave up--even when we had the lead early. I don't think we should be ashamed to lose to them."

In the contest, the Crimson got off to a quick start. Paced by some quick, easy goals by its attackers, Harvard established a 5-2 edge a third of the way through the game.

But then the snow started to fall, and with it, the Crimson shooting percentage.

"I think getting good shots early like that might've ended up hurting us in the end." Anderson said. "We got a little overconfident, and we began to try to get some of the quick shots that we got work the ball in for good shots like we should have."

BC battled back to tie the score at seven, and from then on it was a neck and neck contest. Regulation play ended with the score notched at 11.

So, with snow pouring, the two team battled it out in the sudden death OT for a few minutes, before a BC attacker darted through the Crimson defense and tattood the winning goal to the back of the net.

The mood of the team after the game was melancholy, but not despondent.

"It was tough to lose today, especially since we got of to that early lead," Anderson said. "We should've put the game away, but we just didn't get the job done. This was only our first game, though.

"I don't really believe in looking at the schedule before the season and saying `We have to win this one, and we have to win this one,"' Anderson said. "You just have to take one game at a time. This was no major setback."

The players agreed.

"It was a bad loss in the sense that it was a team that we knew we could beat, but it's not destructive by any means," Gaffney said. "There are a lot of more games left--and they'll probably be under more normal conditions."

The Crimson will next play Army on March 19.