Last season the Harvard men's water polo team walked away from Blodgett Pool with bitter memories after a season-ending 9-8 overtime loss to Brown.

Frustration and sadness were all that were left of the roller coaster season.

That was then, however, and this is now.

Equipped with the desire for redemption and four of last year's seven starters, the Crimson will not be content with just treading water this season.

Unleashing an offensive clinic, Harvard christened the new season in impressive fashion last Thursday with a 23-6 lashing of MIT.

Exploding for six goals and leading the attack for the Crimson was top-scoring sophomore Michael Zimmerman. Not far behind Zimmerman was junior driver Andy Davis, who added five goals to the tidal wave which swamped the Engineers.

"MIT is not the best team around," Zimmerman said. "They are at the low end of the competition."

So although MIT is more like the Detroit Tigers of water polo, the win was nonetheless a welcome start to a season which had the potential to be awash in doubts.

The loss of seven seniors including co-captains Chip Heller and Julian Alexander left a serious void in the Crimson attack.

With only two returning seniors and a squad made up almost entirely of juniors and sophomores, the term "rebuilding year" loomed present.

But don't tell the players that.

"This is definitely a whole separate team from last year," Zimmerman said. "There is a lot more team unity and we're playing much better as a team."

New faces and a year of maturity have given this year's team something to build upon and so far the team is undefeated.

How long that trend will last is still the question.

The Crimson will face its first major test Thursday night against none other than Brown at Blodgett Pool.

"Last year lingers in my mind," said Zimmerman, remembering the grueling loss to the Bears. "We are out for revenge."