After toying with pretenders for the better part of last month, the Harvard women's water polo team met fierce competition for the first time in over three weeks at Princeton this weekend.

The Crimson's return to competition with the East's elite came with mixed results. Harvard finished the weekend with a 2-2 record at the ECAC Championships.

After opening the weekend with a surprisingly easy 9-1 victory over No. 18 Villanova on Saturday, Harvard lost to No. 11 UMass, 10-4.

The Crimson also split Sunday's matches, losing a 6-1 game to No. 12 Princeton in the morning and defeating Queens College 10-5 in the afternoon.

Harvard improved on a disappointing showing last year when it lost three of its four meets at the same tournament.

The Crimson will likely maintain its Top-20 ranking when the National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Poll is released this week.

"I feel very good about our performance this weekend," tri-captain Angela Munoz said. "There are still some things to be worked on, but some very good things happened."

The most pleasant surprise of the weekend came against Villanova. What was expected to be a close game early on quickly became a blowout. The Crimson offense moved as crisply as it has all year.