The biggest showdown of Saturday night didn’t take place on a field—it was in the pool.

After dropping its first matchup of the day, the Harvard men’s water polo team came back to play a nail-biting night game that had spectators on the edge of their seats for nearly two hours.

Despite the excitement, the Crimson’s opponents proved too much to handle as Harvard (3-8, 0-2 CWPA North) lost to Fordham (8-7, 2-1), 13-5, before barely falling in sudden-death play to Iona (2-6, 1-1), 11-10, at Blodgett Pool this Saturday.

“It’s disappointing to start our conference play 0-2,” co-captain Bret Voith said. “But I think our team is trying to take the perspective of ‘it happens’, and move forward.”

The tough games tested the entirety of the Crimson’s lineup, and while seniors Alex Thompson, Jeff Lee, and Voith continued to have a powerful presence, a number of other players made their mark as well.

Juniors Kevin DiSilvestro, Mike Katzer, and co-captain Luka Babic, sophomore Max Eliot, and freshman Neal O’Hara all contributed at least one goal to the day’s efforts. Junior goalkeeper Alexandre Popp had 25 saves in the two games, a quarter of his total in the entire 2009-10 season.

“Everybody stepped up,” Harvard coach Ted Minnis said. “We have a talented senior class and rely on them, but it’s great to see them get some help.”

IONA 11, HARVARD 10 (4 OT)

In what was the Crimson’s most contentious matchup of the year so far, it took four overtimes to finally get a decision against conference opponent Iona.

The game started off very back-and-forth with the Gaels scoring and Harvard quickly responding. The Crimson never pulled ahead, but Iona had no more than a two-goal lead before halftime.

In the third period, the crossbar stopped a series of Harvard shots, while at the other end of the pool Popp kept the Gaels’ offense at bay. But Iona was able to put away two more goals and was up 8-5 going into the last period of regulation play.

With Popp still making a number of crucial saves, the Crimson offense went to work.

“I think our offense was the best it’s been all year, especially in the second half,” Voith said. “We’ve scored more goals [before], but I think that our offense looked very fluid, and we were breaking their zone very effectively.”

Harvard pulled within one, but couldn’t close the gap until Voith put it in the back of the net to make the score 9-9 with about two minutes to play.

Both teams took timeouts to set up plays in the remaining time, but nothing materialized as the clock hit zero.