Co-captain Bret Voith asserted his dominance with five goals at the Princeton Invitational, but Harvard men’s water polo dropped three of four contests over the two day tournament to fall to 2-5 overall.

The Harvard men’s water polo team did just enough to stay afloat in a four-game weekend that nearly ended without a win.

The Crimson took on some of the nation’s top-ranked teams this Saturday and Sunday at the Princeton Invitational in Princeton, N.J. Harvard (2-4) lost to No. 17 Cal Baptist (6-1), 15-12, and to No. 18 Princeton (3-2), 14-9, on the first day of play and then dropped a 17-2 decision to No. 13 Santa Clara (3-2) before beating George Washington (3-5), 9-8, yesterday afternoon.

The first three games, all against elite opponents, represented perhaps the most challenging part of the Crimson’s season schedule.

“I think this stretch with three ranked teams in less than 24 hours was definitely our toughest stretch so far,” Harvard coach Ted Minnis said, “and probably the toughest of the whole year.”

The weekend’s difficult lineup of opponents also came just after a Crimson loss to then-No. 14 St. Francis at last week’s MIT Invitational. Despite the losing record, Harvard’s players felt that the games at Princeton allowed them to improve and develop as a unit.

“It’s clearly not the way we wanted to finish, but we can take away a lot of lessons from each game,” Minnis agreed.

In the end, the Crimson was able to put some of those lessons together to get a victory before the weekend was out.

HARVARD 9, GEORGE WASHINGTON 8

Harvard water polo has made a habit of making several of its games close until the very end, and yesterday’s matchup was no different.

Despite having almost two whole days of grueling play behind it, the Crimson struck early against the Colonials and built up a 3-0 lead in the first period.

“We definitely bounced back [against George Washington],” co-captain Bret Voith said, “which was great after having such a disappointing game that morning.”

But the Colonials wouldn’t go away quietly and came back to within one before the half.

George Washington took the lead in third period, but with just under three minutes left in the fourth, Voith scored to make it 8-8.

On a play coming out of a timeout with about 30 seconds left on the clock, sophomore Max Eliot came up big for the Crimson, burying one in the back of the net to secure the win.

“It was such a back-and-forth game,” Minnis said. “But we didn’t get frustrated when we lost the lead, and that’s why we were able to get it back.”

NO. 13 SANTA CLARA 17, HARVARD 2

Santa Clara was the highest ranked team on Harvard’s schedule, and the Broncos certainly played like it in the teams’ matchup early yesterday morning.

With the Crimson clearly exhausted, both physically and mentally, from a pair of tough games the night before, the Broncos quickly tallied up a substantial lead and wouldn’t let up against their outmatched foe.

“They really wore us down early,” Voith said. “But there’s no reason any team in the country should be able to score 17 goals on us.”

With few bright spots in the decisive loss, Harvard could only move on and try to build up its defense in time to face its next opponent.

NO. 18 PRINCETON 14, HARVARD 9

Although the final score may not show it, the Crimson played some of its best water polo all season against the Tigers at home on Saturday night.

With Voith, junior co-captain Luka Babic, and senior Jeff Lee leading the team in scoring, Harvard had the lead at the first two breaks in play.

“I think [Saturday] was the best they’ve played since I’ve been here,” Minnis said. “The way we played in the first half against Princeton was just amazing.”

The Crimson’s defense, including senior goalkeeper Alexandre Popp, looked strong going into the latter part of the game, but it wasn’t enough to hold off a third-period scoring run by the Tigers.

With four more goals in the final period, Princeton came out on top with a five-goal margin.

NO. 17 CAL BAPTIST 15, HARVARD 12

It looked as though Harvard was down for the count in its first game of the weekend when Cal Baptist jumped ahead 7-1 in the first five minutes of play.

Thanks to goals from Eliot and Lee, the game’s top scorers, the Crimson was able to bring its opponent’s lead down to one in the third period.

But the Lancers were able to pull ahead again and handed Harvard its third defeat of the season.

“Obviously going 1-3 wasn’t our goal this weekend,” Voith said. “But we learned a lot about ourselves, and we’re very happy with the team that’s coming out of it.”

The Crimson is now preparing for its home debut next weekend against MIT at the ECAC Championships.

—Staff writer Madeleine Smith can be reached at smith21@college.harvard.edu.