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.

"Everyone played really well," Munoz said. "We just came out with a lot of confidence."

That confidence seemed to be lacking in the next game against UMass, even though the Crimson entered the game with reason to be optimistic. Although the No. 11 Minutewomen were 12-3 all-time against the Crimson and had defeated them twice this year, Harvard had given UMass a major scare at the New England Invitational.

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

Gunderson proved the prophet this weekend, as the Minutewomen rose to the occasion. UMass set the tone early by erupting for six unanswered goals in the first quarter, and tacked on another goal in the second stanza.

The Crimson was unable to break the shutout until the third quarter, but UMass continued to pour it on with three more goals. By the time Harvard solved UMass goalie Dana Sinkwich by putting three scores on the board in the final quarter, the game was out of reach. Sinkwich made 8 saves for the Minutewomen.

The Crimson had a similarly tentative start against Princeton. The Tigers leaped out to a five-goal cushion at halftime.

However, the Crimson regained its composure during the break, and held Princeton scoreless for the rest of the game.

Harvard Coach Jim Floerchinger applauded his team's effort despite the loss.

"Coach told us that we could have packed it in at the half against Princeton," Munoz said. "But we didn't, and that was good. We didn't have much confidence at the start, but we came back."

The schedule does not get any easier for the Crimson from here. This weekend, Harvard will host the New England Championships at Blodgett Pool. The week after that, the Crimson will return to New Jersey for the College Water Polo Association Eastern Championships at Princeton.

To qualify for the National Championships in Indiana, Harvard must finish in the top three in Easterns. Last year, the Crimson barely missed a berth by finishing fourth behind Maryland, UMass, and Ivy League rival Princeton.

Villanova, UMass and Princeton should be the greatest obstacles separating the Crimson from a trip to the Hoosier State. They are the only teams in the Eastern Division ranked higher than Harvard.

Despite a 1-2 record against the three Eastern powers this weekend, Munoz likes Harvard's chances.

"I'm excited," she said. "We didn't fold against UMass, and we shut Princeton out in the second half. This weekend showed that we can come together as a team."