Women's water polo has traditionally lacked the following of other sports at Harvard. If asked about the team, many fans would probably wonder how exactly they get the horses in and out of the water.

This weekend, the women's water polo team continued to prove that the non-believers are missing out on something exciting.

The No. 18 Crimson (3-4) continued its gradual rise to prominence this weekend, going 2-1 in the New England Invitational at Brown University this weekend.

"We've come a long way in the last few years," tri-captain Kit Hodge said. "This weekend definitely showed that."

The weekend began with an 8-2 win over Queens College. Natasha Magnuson's sharp outside shooting keyed the victory for the Crimson in a game that was never very close.

The team went on to face perennial eastern power UMass (5-1) in a game that many on the team considered a measuring stick. The No. 12 Minutewomen, two-time defending Eastern champions, had defeated the Crimson 9-3 at the Princeton Invitational a week earlier and had been 11-3 all-time against Harvard.

Early on, the Crimson seemed ready to reverse that trend. Early goals by junior Jess Gunderson, who along with Magnuson played the entire game, helped the Crimson jump out to a 3-2 lead in the first quarter.

However, the Minutewomen rebounded in the second quarter to exit the half tied with the Crimson at four goals apiece. Then, they exploded for five unanswered goals in the third quarter. The Crimson ended up losing, 12-5.

Hodge pointed to the halftime deadlock as a positive sign.

"We've developed a lot since Easterns last year," she said. "The first half against UMass showed us that we can compete with the top teams in the east."

Added Gunderson, "We've gone from being an all-right team to being a legitimate threat. Other teams recognize this and know that they have to play better against us. And they have."

Harvard finished the weekend against Brown. The first half ended with the Crimson holding a slim 5-4 lead, and the team feared another second-half collapse, this time against a lesser-regarded opponent.

But the Crimson defense more than rose to the occasion. Led by sophomore goalkeeper Danielle McCarthy, the Crimson held the Bears to a single goal in the second half, as the Crimson won, 8-5.

"Brown's one of the teams that's gunning for us," Hodge said. "So this was an important win."

The Crimson will now experience a relative lull in its schedule with divisional meets at MIT and Connecticut College before three major tournaments next month.

April's challenges will include the ECAC Championships at Princeton, the New England Championships at Harvard, and the College Water Polo Association Eastern Championships at Princeton.

"It was good to get some of the harder competition in the beginning," Gunderson said. "We now have a better idea of what our expectations are and what we need to do. We've developed tremendously as a team."

The team, under Coach Jim Floerchinger, will have to do a lot more developing in the next month. The team started practicing together only recently. Freshman Jane Humphries, who scored a number of goals this weekend, did so in her collegiate debut after a busy swimming season.

Last year, a fourth-place finish at Easterns left the Crimson just short of a trip to the National Championships.

"Everyone was solid this weekend," she said. "The team on the whole did some great things. We'll work on teamwork now that we're together, but these games definitely show that we're getting closer."