Junior Mike Katzer led Harvard with three goals Saturday night, but despite his efforts, the Crimson fell in the fourth overtime to Iona.

Playing 32 minutes of water polo is a lot. Add on eleven minutes of gut-wrenching sudden-death overtime, and it begins to seem like an eternity.

Even before I hopped into the water last Saturday night, I could tell that it was not going to be your average Harvard men’s varsity water polo game.

We had fallen to Fordham earlier in the day in our first conference game of the season and were looking to bounce back in what seemed to be a do-or-die match-up against the Gaels of Iona College.

We knew that an 0-2 start to conference play would all but doom us to the bottom half of the division. Looking around the locker room, I sensed a certain energy in the room, a feeling of urgency that wasn’t normally there.

Iona scored first, and memories of the morning’s game flashed in my mind. Would we just roll over and let the Gaels take this one?

But we fought back, tying the score at one on an extra-man goal by senior Alex Thompson.

The game went back and forth, yet the Gaels proved stronger over the first three periods, holding an 8-5 lead going into the fourth.

When we came over to the bench after the third quarter, our coach Ted Minnis had just one thing to tell us.

“Three-goal deficit? This is nothing,” he said. “You guys came back from five last week.”

Our offense stepped up to the plate in a big way during the final period. We scored two quick goals, and after an Iona score that extended its lead to 9-7, junior Mike Katzer powered the ball into the back of the net, cutting the deficit to one.

After a strong defensive stand, I ended up with the ball, and dropped it in to captain Bret Voith right in front of the goal. He rose up out of the water and tied the game with a shot that rocketed into the far side of the cage.

In water polo, overtime consists of two three-minute periods, and if necessary, as many three-minute periods of sudden death as needed to have a winner.

The first overtime period was scoreless, and with 30 seconds left in the second overtime, Iona called a time-out.

Its goalie came out to half-pool to pass the ball, and on the referee’s whistle, he threw it long into the hands of one of our players, who then passed the ball back to our junior goalkeeper, Alex Popp.

From the bench, I could see Alex holding the ball and eyeing the other goal, which had been left open after the opposing goalie had come out to half-pool.