The question is not if, but when, the women's water polo team opened an umbrella indoors and walked under a ladder, tripping over a black cat and sprawling into a mirror, shattering it completely.

Throughout its season, Harvard was plagued by the loss of players from its already-small roster for a bevy of reasons, including MCATs, other sports, mononucleosis, strep throat, broken thumbs, and even facial lacerations requiring stitches.

"[Sometimes] we didn't even have enough people at practice to scrimmage," said junior goalie Danielle McCarthy.

As a result, the team struggled at times to compete with healthier squads.

"The score often didn't reflect how well we played," co-captain Jesse Gunderson said.

Last year, the Crimson graduated five seniors from a squad that went to Nationals and held its own against then-No. 1 Stanford. Matching that success became more difficult when women's water polo became an NCAA sport this year, meaning four schools, not 16, would earn berths at Nationals.

Harvard did enjoy a promising start to its season, defeating Brown 6-5 behind three Gunderson goals and an overall stifling defensive performance to improve its record to 5-0.