Weeks of grueling preseason preparation and practice finally paid off this past weekend for the men's water polo team as it exorcised old demons, conquered perennial opponents and came away with the best season start in recent years.

Leading up to the round-robin tournament on Saturday, the Crimson practiced over six hours a day incorporating fitness testing with skills development and tactical preparation.

"Every player has worked his hardest and has encouraged his teammates," said Harvard Coach Jim Floerchinger. "It is one of the things that makes this team great."

No. 20 Harvard (3-1), whose only loss this weekend was to No. 14 UMass, was indeed great as it roared out of the gate on Saturday playing four consecutive games at Blodgett Pool.

Harvard 10, Boston College 3

In its first match-up of the day long tournament, Harvard took on familiar foe Boston College. In each of the last two years, the Eagles have handed the Crimson losses to begin the season. This year, however, a balanced attack and solid defense helped Harvard prevail over BC, 10-3.

Sophomore driver Istvan Zollei opened the Crimson onslaught with a Hungarian-style hat trick in the first quarter opening Harvard's lead to 4-0.

After the initial quarter, the Crimson unleashed its varied offensive arsenal as six different players scored the remaining six goals en route to the decisive 10-3 win.

"One of our strengths this year is that we are able to play really deep into our roster," said two-meter defenseman Alex P. Fisher.

Junior goalkeeper Gresham Bayne recorded 12 saves-including one off a penalty shot-in the winning effort.

Harvard 9, Brown 7

Before the Crimson had a chance to dry off, it was back in the pool to face an old nemesis. The last time Harvard beat Brown in a regular season contest its freshmen were eating in the Union Building, now known as the Barker Center.

This year, however, the Crimson managed to break the Bears curse by again relying on its impressive depth at each position and its watertight defense.

"Simply put, we wore them out," Floerchinger said.

Five different players scored Harvard's nine goals as Bayne was again resilient in net with nine saves.

Harvard 12, MIT 3

After the emotional win over Brown, Harvard turned its attention to cross-town rival MIT, who had also beaten Brown earlier in the day.

At first, Harvard was sluggish and allowed MIT to hang close with a 4-2 score in Harvard's favor at the end of the first quarter.

Ultimately, the formula for success in the previous two games-constant scoring threats and tenacious defense- allowed the Crimson to finally break down the Engineers. Nine different Harvard players scored as the Crimson went on an 8-1 run to win the game 12-3.

"In the last three quarters we effectively shut down MIT's top threats," said sophomore driver Mike Masterson. "On the offensive side, we wore them down with relentless counterattacks."

Sophomore Paul Tselentis started in goal in place of Bayne for the MIT game and racked up 10 saves for his first win of the season.

The Red Line Rivalry will continue in two weeks as Harvard travels down to Kendall Square for another meeting with MIT.

UMass 12, Harvard 4

Riding a three-game winning streak into the final match, the Crimson looked to capitalize against an equally weary Minuteman team.

UMass entered the tournament ranked 14th in the nation and last year ended the year third in the NCAA tournament. Suffice it to say, Harvard was in store for its most difficult challenge of the day.

Tselentis again got the nod in goal, although his protective prowess was not enough to keep the Minutemen from scoring early and taking advantage of the tired Crimson team.

"It was very hard for us coming into the final game [against UMass] because we were all mentally and physically fatigued," Tselentis said.

Despite the 12-4 loss to UMass, Harvard remained optimistic about rematching the intrastate adversary.

"I believe that UMass is a team with which we can be competitive in the future," Floerchinger said. "The fact that we played a strong game with a team which has historically been one of the top teams in the East bodes well."

The Crimson will get its chance at revenge next week, when it faces UMass at the Brown Invitational Tournament.

Overall, Harvard seems content with its 3-1 start, a marked improvement from opening the season with a 0-3 record last year. With continued development of Harvard's deep roster, the Crimson can inch towards its goal of winning the Eastern Championship.