The Harvard women’s water polo team began the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Northern Division Championship in dominating fashion, but was once again unable to steer clear of an obstacle which has thwarted it all season long—host and Ivy rival No. 17 Brown.

For the fifth time in as many chances, the Crimson was unable to overcome the second-seeded Bears’ attack and fell 14-3.

“It’s really frustrating because they’ve been our rivals ever since I’ve been on the team,” co-captain Michele Falkner said. “We have beaten them in the past, and we’ve come so close this season. We know that we have the skills and the talent to beat them.”

“It was particularly frustrating losing to them this weekend, because we might not have another opportunity to play them,” she added.

This defeat was far worse than any other for other reasons as well.

The magnitude of the game—which would decide a berth in the Northern Division finals—far outweighed any similar matchup from earlier in the season, while the 11-goal margin of defeat was the largest for Harvard all season long.

The third-seeded Crimson began the weekend shorthanded, with sophomore standout and top scoring threat Teresa Codini limited to playing only in the semifinal by a broken finger suffered against Bucknell last weekend.

But Codini’s injury alone could not account for the overall sluggishness of Harvard’s play under pressure.

A lack of execution on offense and mental errors which seemed to be a thing of the past in the previous few games plagued the Crimson again and Brown was more than ready to take advantage.

“I think the main problem was that our offense wasn’t as tight as it usually was,” Falkner said. “So that meant that we couldn’t get back on defense. We got countered a couple of times in the beginning of the game and after that our confidence was down a little bit.”

Throughout the season’s early going, opposing squads continually exploited the Crimson’s tendency to slightly overcommit on offense, leaving Harvard vulnerable to the counterattack.

That problem seemed to have been solved during the team’s West Coast swing, but old habits die hard.

“I think we had improved a lot throughout the season,” Falkner said. “Brown happens to be a particularly fast team. We have done a lot better in past games and I’m sure we will in the future.”

But in recent games against the Bears, being counterattacked has not been a problem for the Crimson.

“Our team is really fast,” freshman Sarah Kennifer said. “And in the most recent past we haven’t had any problems shutting down other teams counterattacks.”