The No. 16 Harvard men’s water polo team hosted the ECACs this weekend at Blodgett Pool and came away from the tournament sure of what it already knew—that it has a legitimate chance of making the NCAA tournament.

The Crimson (20-8, 7-3 CWPA) went 3-1 on the weekend, including a 10-1 thrashing of Ivy League rival Brown and a 5-4 loss to No. 14 Queens College. The Crimson also defeated George Washington, 12-3, and Johns Hopkins, 10-4.

The games of the greatest importance were against Queens and the Bears. With the win against Brown, Harvard avenged a 10-8 loss in Providence the previous week. And with its near-win over Queens, the Crimson proved that its 10-8 upset over the Eastern powerhouse last week was not a fluke.

The Crimson could face both teams over the course of the Northern Division championships at Brown this weekend.

“We played two good games against teams we can hopefully beat,” sophomore 2-meter Todd Schulte said.

Harvard 10, Brown 1

Last week, the Crimson faced a relatively rested Brown team mere hours after its win over then-No. 12 Queens. Yesterday, facing Brown after a night’s rest and in its last game of the tournament, the Crimson dominated from the start of play.

“Revenge and rivalry were the key words of this game,” junior driver Istvan Zollei said. “When they beat us, their team was really psyched, and it’s always been a very competitive between us.”

Zollei scored twice in a game in which nine different players accounted for the 10 goals scored.

“It is hard to defend that kind of balance,” Zollei said. “When one guy is scoring all the goals, the other team can focus on that one person. But when we show them we all can score, there is little they can do.”

Schulte said he felt that the difference between the two games against Brown was more than the absence of fatigue.

“Last time, we allowed them to dictate what we did,” he said. “This time, we stuck to our game plan, and the results showed it.”

The Crimson has now defeated the Bears in two of their three meetings this season. The fourth will come in the opening round at Northerns, and is a must-win if Harvard is going to advance to Easterns at Princeton in two weeks.