Despite its disappointing performance this season, the Harvard men's water polo team still had a chance to secure a berth in the Northern Championship Tournament entering this weekend's tournament at St. Francis in New York.

Instead, the disappointment continued as Harvard (6-15) left St. Francis with a 2-2 record, recording wins against Lehman and the Merchant Marine and losses against Iona and St. Francis. HARVARD  13 LEHMAN  4 HARVARD  6 IONA  11 HARVARD  15 USMMA  4 HARVARD  9 ST. FRANCIS  15

Needing to win three out of their four games on the weekend, the Crimson fell just short of assuring itself a spot and left the tournament with uncertainty hanging over its shoulder.

Once in control of its own destiny, the Crimson's fate now lies in the hands of other teams. Harvard hopes to qualify for the Northern Championships on a tie-breaker.

Harvard 13, Lehman 4

In the first game of the tournament, the Crimson faced off against Coach Jim Floerschinger's former team, Lehman College.

Facing a relatively weak Lehman team and eager to get off to a good start, Harvard, led by early goals from captain Mike Zimmerman, jumped out to an early lead and quickly dispatched an overmatched Lehman squad.

"We expected to beat them, which is what we did," Zimmerman said.

Iona 11, Harvard 6

With the trivialities over, Harvard faced its first test of the tournament in Iona. Having previously beaten Iona 10-9 a few weeks ago at the Fordham Invitational, Harvard entered the game with optimism and confidence.

That confidence was soon deflated by a barrage of two-pointers from the hard-shooting Iona squad.

"It was really deflating," Zimmerman said. "They made five two-pointers on us, and you can't really come back from that."

One of the two-pointers came off a restart when the Iona point man fired in a skip shot from half court that caught the entire Harvard team by surprise, including sophomore goalie Josh Bliesath.

"I just wasn't ready for it," Bliesath said. "I was making sure we were setting up on defense, and before I knew it, the ball was in the goal."

Desperately needing to win this game, Harvard played solidly throughout, but in the end it simply wasn't enough to overcome five two-pointers.