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.”

Completing the less-than-ideal picture, several of Harvard’s swimmers were exhausted by the time the final game began.

With the hustle and bustle of the hotel and different individuals banging on their doors, many players did not fall asleep until 3 a.m.

Finishing the previous night’s games around 10:30 p.m. and beginning the next morning before 8 a.m. left little room for rest and mental preparation.

“People were a little bit worn out and tired from the night before and I think that’s why the team didn’t play as well together,” Kennifer said.

With a weakened attack and the errors mounting, the Crimson never really stood a chance.

Brown seized the momentum in a way uncharacteristic of prior games between the two squads, scoring early and never looking back.

“Brown just had a lot of momentum from the beginning, which is pretty rare,” Falkner said. “Usually we stay close with them for the first half or so.”

Group Play

Harvard’s performance on Saturday was precisely the opposite of Sunday’s showing against Brown, as the Crimson easily brushed aside sixth-seeded Queens College and ninth-seeded Connecticut College.

“We basically had to place in the top four to advance to Easterns [which Harvard will host],” Kennifer said. “So we had to beat Connecticut and Queens. We went in with a little more caution than we normally do so we’d be able to play at our own tournament. We were really trying to prove that we knew exactly what we were doing on offense.”

The Crimson grabbed the momentum early on Saturday, rolling over the Camels for the third time this season in a 7-1 victory.

As in the teams’ past meetings, the outcome was virtually never in doubt, with Harvard dominating the entire way.

Crimson coach Jim Floerchinger repeatedly rotated through his lineup, substituting six swimmers at once on occasion to guarantee each was rested for the remaining games.

And while the team has utilized jumbled lines as in the past, the gravity of the game led Floerchinger to stop short of swapping goalies with field swimmers and vice-versa.

“We were able to get all our players in,” Falkner said. “We did switch lineups a lot. We gave everyone a lot of rest.”

Similarly against Queens College, which the Crimson had also upended earlier in the season, the level of intensity was higher than normal circumstances would have dictated.

“We didn’t want to be too complacent going into the game,” Falkner said. “They had a couple of strong, physical players, which is another reason why we didn’t want Teresa to go in.”

Harvard dominated from start to finish and any chance of a victory for the Knights disappeared when they were forced to play shorthanded.

Having brought only eight players, Queens had to play six versus five when one player was removed on account of injury and another was ejected from the game as a result of three kick-outs—the equivalent of a trip to the penalty box in hockey.

Capitalizing on the advantage, the Crimson slowed the pace of play and ran out the clock to finish off the 10-4 victory.

The team returns to action when it makes its first appearance in Blodgett Pool this Wednesday night against Dartmouth.

“I think we’re going to work a lot more on offensive strategy and on counterattacks,” Falkner said. “This game against Dartmouth will be a good opportunity to practice a lot of the things we had problems with.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.