At least 24 Harvard students won't be able to watch the 117th iteration of The Game in two weeks.

But none of them mind.

The Harvard men's water polo team has a conflicting engagement in Providence, R.I. There, the Crimson will compete in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Championships, the qualifying meet for the NCAA Tournament.

By going 3-1 at the Northern Championships and beating Brown on Sunday, 7-5, the team made its first Easterns in eight years and wrote another chapter in the best Crimson sports story no one knows about.

In a sport traditionally dominated by California teams, Harvard has become a forced to be reckoned with. While nowhere near as shocking as the rise of the Jamaican bobsled team, the team's recent rise certainly warrants more attention than it has received until this point.

This weekend's football game against Columbia drew 6,721 spectators. A crowd of 67 people for a midweek tussle at Blodgett Pool would be surprising. You probably won't see the John Harvard mascot at many of the team's games, either, but the occasional crazed roommate armed with either a cowbell or a flag helps to fill that void.

This weekend, Blodgett Pool was packed. The women's water polo team, both swimming teams and a plethora of friends, parents and refugees from the cancelled women's hockey game piled into the stands to witness history.

The Crimson didn't disappoint, despite having to qualify the hard way. The major stumbling block came in the form of an idiosyncratic Northern Championship schedule.