LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The No. 11 Harvard women's water polo team suffered just its second loss of the season this afternoon to the No. 2 UCLA Bruins in Los Angeles. The Crimson (23-2, 4-1 CWPA) dropped the contest with the Bruins, 15-4, in the fifth of its six matches during its Spring break trip. 

The Bruins quickly established a lead in the first quarter, going on a 5-0 scoring run in the opening minutes. Maya O'Dea stopped the streak with a goal that was assisted by Heidi Heffelfinger. Harvard had two more shots in the quarter that did not find the net. UCLA added a pair of goals in remainder of the first quarter to take a 7-1 lead. NIki Piovan scored a pair of exclusion goals in the second quarter to aid the Crimson effort, but UCLA responded with three goals of its own to take a 10-3 lead into the halftime break. 

Orli Cooper made two saves and Harvard forced two turnovers - one of which was a steal by Piovan - to hold UCLA to just one goal in the third quarter. Piovan completed her hat-trick in the frame to make hte score 11-4 after three periods. The Bruins would go on to score four more goals in the final quarter to swim away with a 15-4 result over the Crimson. 

HARVARD 4, UCLA 15 

• Niki Piovan scored three of Harvard's goals on just five shots.

• Piovan also led the team with three steals.
• Maya O'Dea recorded two assists. 
• Orli Cooper made five saves in goal for the Crimson. 
• Harvard went 3-for-4 on exclusion powerplays. 

UP NEXT 

Harvard will take on No. 9 UC Irvine tomorrow afternoon in its final Spring Break match. The match is set to begin at 1:00 PM EST.