Junior Cristina Codini netted a pair against George Washington on Saturday to power Harvard’s 5-4 win.

After an exhausted Harvard women’s water polo team limped into last place at the ECAC championships three weeks ago, the Collegiate Water Polo Association seeded the club 10th in the 12-team field at the Eastern Championships in Lewisburg, Pa.

That turned out to be a gross underestimation.

The Crimson (20-13) turned in a 3-1 weekend, falling only to the eventual champion Hartwick en route to a fifth-place finish.

Harvard knocked off seventh-seeded Iona in the opening round on Friday, setting up the meeting with second-seeded and No. 13 Hartwick. After the Hawks pulled away to a 10-5 victory on Saturday, the Crimson registered a dramatic comeback to knock off the six-seed, George Washington.

Harvard capped off the weekend with a 6-2 victory over fifth-seeded and No. 18 Princeton yesterday to take home a fifth-place finish. The five-position improvement over its original seeding was the biggest shift of any team in the tournament.

Crimson junior two-meter Teresa Codini, who led Harvard with seven goals on the weekend, was named to the All-Tournament Second Team.

HARVARD 6, PRINCETON 2

It was a satisfying end to a weekend of redemption.

The Tigers (24-9) dominated the Crimson at the Princeton Invitational earlier this season, shutting down Harvard’s attack for an 8-2 victory.

What a difference two months can make.

The Crimson scored two goals in each period of the first half, while allowing

Princeton just one total to take a 4-1 lead into halftime.

Harvard spent the second half focused on its defensive intensity as it held the Tigers scoreless into the fourth quarter before Princeton managed to tally its only goal of the half.

“The biggest difference between the two games [this season] was our defense,” Harvard coach Scott Russell said. “The way we played defense today was fantastic, especially since Princeton is a high-scoring team.”

The Crimson added two scores of its own in the fourth to claim a 6-2 win and a fifth-place finish.

Senior goaltender Elena Miller registered a strong performance in her final collegiate contest, especially in the first quarter, when she made six saves and only allowed one goal.

“Seeing as it was the seniors’ last game and our final game of the season, it was an absolutely great way to go out,” sophomore two-meter Molly Mehaffey said.

HARVARD 5, GEORGE WASHINGTON 4

It was the rubber match of a season series that could not have been any closer, as the previous two meetings had been decided by a total of just two points.

But this time, it appeared George Washington (18-13) would buck the trend as it grabbed an early 3-0 lead.

“The biggest problem for us was our intensity in the first quarter,” Russell said. “After playing so well against Iona and Hartwick, we weren’t as focused as we would have liked to have been. But when they scored that goal to go up 3-0, that was the wakeup call.”

Harvard got one back before halftime as sophomore two-meter Arin Keyser threaded a pass to Mehaffey who finished it to close the gap to 3-1. The Crimson added two more goals in the third quarter as the two squads entered the final period tied at three.

The Crimson kept the pressure on in the fourth, adding two more goals early in the period to cap off its five goal run and extend its lead to 5-3.

“When we get down, sometimes we have a tendency of shooting anything just to try to score,” Mehaffey said. “But this time we got good shots, and every [attempt] was right on [net].”

George Washington nearly broke up that run in the third period, as it earned a four-meter penalty shot. But sophomore goaltender Lydia Gardner made the difficult save to keep the momentum on Harvard’s side.

The Colonels finally ended a two-quarter-long scoring drought to close the gap to 5-4 late in the fourth. But the Crimson defense clamped down, holding off George Washington by the same margin for its second win of the tournament.

Mehaffey and junior two-meter Teresa Codini each had a pair of goals, while junior Cristina Codini added one.

HARTWICK 10, HARVARD 5

The last time the Crimson faced the Hawks, Hartwick (32-8) ran off five goals in the first quarter while holding Harvard scoreless, effectively ending the game before either side had a chance to get its feet wet. The 16-8 final masked the fact that six of Harvard’s eight goals had come in the fourth, when the contest was no longer in doubt.

While the end result was much the same on Saturday, the Crimson earned back a bit of the respect it had lost at Moyer Pool just one month ago.

Harvard hung around with Hartwick through one period, trailing just 2-1 at the end of the first. The Hawks added two more in the second to grab a 4-1 halftime lead. The Crimson managed to get one back in the third, but Hartwick’s attack could not be stopped as the Hawks tallied three in the quarter to take a 7-2 lead into the fourth.

Harvard tried to rally back from the five-goal deficit scoring three straight goals to open the quarter.

“It seemed like every shot [in the fourth quarter] was on,” Mehaffey said.

But Hartwick managed to regroup scoring a quick goal to counter the Crimson run. The Hawks added two more in the waning moments for the 10-5 final.

“They called a timeout and executed a few plays out of it very well to beat us by the [final] margin,” Russell said. “I’m disappointed that we lost, but I have no complaints about our intensity or execution.”

HARVARD 8, IONA 5

It was the only opponent at Easterns that the Crimson hadn’t seen this season, yet by the end of the first quarter Harvard seemed right at home.

The Crimson and the Gaels (13-11) traded goals in the first, as the teams were tied at two at the end of one. But Harvard tallied four in the second quarter, while only allowing Iona to net one, as the Crimson took a commanding 6-3 lead into the break.

“Iona has one player (senior Shannon McGady) who’s the focus of its offense,” Russell said. “We started to run a zone-type defense to force the Iona defense outside. We basically said, ‘We’re going to take away your best player, what are you going to do,’ and that was the way we played defense in the second quarter [onward].”

The defensive intensity remained just as strong as Harvard took the pool after the half. The Crimson held Iona to just one goal in each of the final two quarters and added two of its own to coast to an 8-5 win.

The Harvard victory was the only win by a lower seed in the opening round of the tournament.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.