It has been eight long years since the Harvard men's water polo team competed at the Eastern Championships. In two weeks, the Crimson shall return.

In Harvard's final game of the Northern Division Championships this weekend at Blodgett Pool, Harvard (22-9, 10-4 CWPA) defeated Brown, 7-5, and secured its spot in the Eastern Championships.

After sinking Fordham, 19-8, and dropping its game to UMass-Amherst, 12-2, on Saturday, Harvard bounced back yesterday with convincing wins over Iona, 9-6, and Brown.

"We're going to Easterns for the first time in a long time," said captain Tom Elke. "We played hard, we played well, and we played as a team. We really came through."

The Crimson entered Northerns seeded fourth and needed a fourth place finish or better to advance to Easterns.

Up until this weekend, it had been Harvard's main team goal to qualify for the Eastern Championships. Over the past few months, the Crimson has been consistently successful.

That success has been contingent upon the renewed work ethic the team has adopted this year, in addition to its deep roster and new sense of team spirit.

"For as hard as we've worked this season, we were not going to lose these games," senior captain Tom Elke said.

Harvard 7, Brown 5

The Crimson's win against Brown captured the spirit of the squad that has steadily proved itself all season. Harvard emerged in what could have been its final game of the season with a physical and aggressive style of play.

Sophomore driver Mike Masterson scored the opening goal of the game about two minutes into the first quarter. Masterson's shot set the tone for the first quarter, as the Crimson fought the Bears into the quarter's final seconds.

The Crimson capitalized on the expiring clock with a goal by sophomore utility Alex Fisher. Fisher forced a shot in with three seconds left in the quarter to put the Crimson up, 2-0.

The Crimson continued its barrage on Brown in the second quarter with early, back-to-back goals by sophomore driver Istvan Zollei.

Zollei has been key to the Crimson offense this season, and reaffirmed his prowess with the ball against Brown.

The Bears mounted a comeback, however.

Brown freshman Doug Grazmacher placed Bruno's first ball between the poles. The Bears continued to fight, and turned the game into a grudge match.

When the second quarter ended, Harvard was up 4-3.

Both Harvard and Brown stepped up their games in the third quarter, and the added defense kept scoring at bay.

The teams struggled with each other's offenses, and not until 5:49 into the quarter did freshmen two-meter man Todd Schulte pop one in past Brown goalie Mike McGaraghan.

Schulte's goal widened the Crimson's lead to 5-3

Harvard junior Mike Crosby led the Crimson into the fourth quarter, closing the door on the chances of a Bears come back.

After a series of unsuccessful passes, Crosby fired a shot past McGaraghan and widened the Crimson's lead to 6-3.

Brown retaliated with two more goals in the fourth, but it was Harvard junior Sean Cheng's goal, off a pass from Alex Fisher with 2:40 in the game that cemented the win for the Crimson.

Against Brown, Harvard relied on the strengths of junior goalie Gresham Bayne.

Bayne had 12 saves on the game, and made a consistent effort to energize the Crimson defense from the net.

"We can't take any games for granted because you'll get surprised if you come out here relaxed," said Bayne. "We had two really good games today--this morning was a tough game, and so was this afternoon."

Senior captain Tom Elke was enthusiastic with respect to the Crimson's effort.

"I've been here five years and I don't know of anyone on a Harvard water polo team who's beaten Brown before this year," Elke said. "We did it twice and when it mattered."

Harvard also beat Brown at home in September.

Harvard 9, Iona 6

The Crimson started off its day yesterday with a win over Iona.

Zollei pounded on the Iona defense, scoring two goals in the first quarter and two in the last.

However, the game was far from an easy win.

"We never quite put them away until the end," Elke said.

The Crimson offense was powered by Zollei, and juniors Crosby and Cheng. Each had two goals.

Both teammates helped Harvard overcome the offensive attack by Iona senior Billy Mulcrone, who put four goals past Bayne.

But Bayne was too strong for the Iona offense. With seven saves, Bayne was part of the Crimson defense that contained the Iona attack.

UMass-Amherst 12, Harvard 2

Harvard tried to avert the Minutemen, but No. 13 U. Mass (23-10, 11-2 CWPA) was just too strong.

Schulte got the Crimson started off right, with the first goal of the game and Harvard came out very aggressively--physically outplaying the Minutemen for the entire first quarter.

But the game went south for the Crimson as the minutes passed by.

Harvard conceded 12 goals at the hands of eight different UMass players. "Before the tournament we really wanted to beat UMass, but obviously that was going to be really hard," Zollei said. "UMass was third in the nation last year, and they are probably one of the best teams on the East Coast. I was a little cautious of putting all the emphasis on this game."

Zollei was confident that the Crimson could play well against the Minutemen. But the sophomore knew that there was more to the tournament than this one game.

"If we lost to UMass, I did not want the team to feel really bad and to collapse," Zollei said. "Our main goal for the season was to go to Easterns, we could accomplish this in our other games."

The Crimson used the loss to its advantage as motivation.

"We just picked ourselves up and moved on," Elke said.

The Crimson was able to rebound from a few lackluster minutes of play in their game against Iona to push forward and grab the win.

Harvard 19, Fordham 8

Fordham was by far the Harvard's easiest opponent as nine different Crimson players scored against the Rams.

The Crimson's opening appearance displayed its depth as it broke through for a 19-8 rout.

"We have the deepest team on the East Coast," Zollei said. "We play four games in two days--we need a really deep team in order to do that well."

"Our whole mentality is based on what it takes to be a great team," he added.

Amassing one of its strongest records in years, Harvard has proved it is ready to contend for a top spot at Easterns.

"It's going to be some pretty tough competition but we are not afraid at all," Zollei said. "Sometimes we have some problems against less competitive teams, but against the better teams we step it up. We beat Navy earlier this year and almost beat Princeton. I'm totally confident; this weekend was a huge mental boost."

The Crimson will compete next in two weeks at Easterns at Brown University.