There was a time in the history of the Harvard men's water polo team--and a time not too long ago--when a loss to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) carried the ultimate stigma.

But after yesterday's narrow 13-12 Harvard victory over the Engineers at Brown, coupled with the Crimson's 10-9 loss to MIT last Tuesday, it appears every win is destined to be a struggle.

"We pulled out the victory, which is important, but it definitely wasn't pretty," said captain Mike Zimmerman. "We've been playing flat. We didn't play well in the first half, but we were better in the fourth quarter."

Harvard (4-8) edged out the victory over MIT but fell to Queens College, 16-4. The second game was also a chance to avenge an earlier Harvard loss, but Queens made sure that vengeance remained elusive. HARVARD  13 MIT  12 HARVARD  4 QUEENS  16

The Crimson's opening match was as close as one might expect a matching of wits in a more academic pursuit between the two schools. The teams went goal for goal most of the game, until Harvard built and protected a narrow lead in the fourth quarter.

The Crimson fought off two man-up situations in the game's final two minutes, as sophomore goaltender Josh Bliesath came up big with two heroic saves. Harvard focused its defense on restricting MIT exclusively to one-point shots.

Junior Dror Bar-Ziv was among the heroes for the Crimson as he notched a clutch two-pointer to put Harvard in command in the fourth.

In the Crimson's second match of the day, no complicated defensive schemes were necessary. Queens jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the game's opening minutes and never looked back.

Not that it was all bad. Harvard Coach Jim Floerchinger called a timeout after the first three goals were allowed and Queens was held scoreless over the final four minutes of the quarter.

But the Crimson yielded a pair of two-pointers at the start of the second quarter to remove the last gusts of wind from Harvard's already limp sails.

"There were definitely a few minutes here and there where we played well, but [the two-pointers] really deflated us," Zimmerman said. "They started getting fast-break opportunities because we were pretty down on ourselves."

Most of Queens' goals came from fast breaks and man-up situations, as Harvard was simply unable to keep up with the better team.

Harvard will try to right the ship next weekend when it participates in the North-south Invitational at Princeton.