The Harvard women's water polo team returned to Cambridge looking for a win after dropping two at the Indiana Invitational Tournament in Bloomington last weekend. HARVARD  21 MIT  8

And fortunately, it found the victory fairly easily.

The Crimson defeated MIT last night at Blodgett Pool, routing the Engineers 21-8.

"We did not play our best," said junior captain Kit Hodge. "We did not play with a great deal of focus."

It was a tough transition for the Crimson to go from the intense competition of last week's tournament to the easy routing of MIT.

"They are not a strong team," Hodge said. "However, they had a couple of experienced players that we were not expecting. They have students from the graduate school on their team."

The Engineers experience, however, did not bother the Crimson, as the youthful Harvard squad used its speed to outmatch MIT.

"The scoring was pretty spread out," Hodge said. "Everyone got a chance."

The Crimson had no problem throughout the match, as it jumped ahead early, making it possible for some non-starters to get in some playing time of their own.

"Today was a great opportunity for us to get into the type of competition we are going to face this weekend," Hodge said.

Harvard is heading up the road to MIT this weekend to face Wellesley, Boston College, Boston University, and the Engineers once again. The upcoming competition shouldn't be much more of a challenge than MIT was.

"This weekend will be a nice chance for us to work on our basic skills, like our defense, offense, anticipation," Hodge said. "We particularly want to practice our man-up situations."

With last night's overwhelming win over MIT, the Crimson are supremely confident in its chances.

"We expect to trounce all over this tournament," Hodge said.