The Massachusetts men’s soccer team (2-4) experienced the ebbs and flows of collegiate athletics this weekend as it hosted the 11th annual UMass Soccer Classic.

Friday, UMass defeated Siena (0-4-1) 4-2 in the first round of the Classic, but fell to Harvard (3-2) 3-1 yesterday to close out the tournament.

Junior captain Oral Bullen led the Maroon and White to victory Friday with his first two goals of the season.

Bullen picked up his first score four minutes into the game when he outraced the defense to a ball sent into the UMass zone by sophomore Rob Charest. Charest forced a Siena turnover at midfield and sent a pass to Bullen who ran down the pass and converted on the breakaway.

The Minutemen forced another scoring opportunity when, deep in the UMass zone, a Siena defender charged a lob with the intention of heading the ball to prevent it from going out of bounds. Anticipating a Siena misplay, UMass freshman Mike Mingione ran behind his man and received the ball after it sailed over the airborne Siena defender. With no one between him and the goalie, sophomore Ralph Pace rang a shot off the post.

The Saints capitalized on their good luck by controlling the rebound and driving the ball down the field where T.J. Helly found the back of the net during the 45th minute.

Mingione gave the Minutemen their lead back when he scored on an outside shot with 45 seconds left in the half. Mingione recorded his first collegiate goal after tucking a 25-yard shot under the crossbar.

As the second half got underway, UMass increased its lead to 3-1 with Bullen’s second goal in the 62nd minute. Massachusetts net minder Colin Burns initiated the play by booming a free kick 60 yards downfield where it was headed into the offensive zone by freshman Matty Lemire. Lemire directed his header to Bullen, who finished the bang-bang play with a well-placed shot past a diving Patrick Henry of Siena. Burns and Lemire were credited with assists.

“It was just unbelievable, I don’t think I’ve ever had a point before. It just sort of happened,” Burns said. “It means a lot to me because I’ve been here for four years with [Bullen] and it felt great to set him up for the goal.”

Siena managed to cut the lead once again with a Tom Santoro goal in the 66th minute to make the score 3-2.

Unwilling to give up the tying goal, UMass stepped up its defense and held Siena without a scoring chance for the next 10 minutes of play.

Acting as an 11th offensive player as time ran down, Henry ran towards midfield during the 89th minute in hopes of gaining possession of the ball and pressuring the Minutemen one last time.

As the teams struggled at midfield, UMass sophomore Richie Higa gained control of a loose ball and chipped a shot over Henry into the net for a fourth and decisive goal.

“The last 12 minutes, we had good control of the ball, but they really pressured us and we just didn’t defend as well as we needed to,” UMass coach Sam Koch said. “We shouldn’t have let up any goals.”

After defeating Siena, UMass hosted a heavily favored Harvard team that was fresh off Friday’s 4-2 semifinal victory over Hartford.

UMass and the Crimson played to a physical stalemate until the Minutemen were charged with a costly penalty at 29:18. UMass junior defender Tim Kitchell was administered a red card for cleating a Harvard player who was on the ground.

As a result of the infraction, Massachusetts was forced to play man-down for the rest of the game.

Harvard wasted no time in taking advantage of the extra player and scored twice before the half expired.

At 14:56, William Craig assisted Crimson teammate Matt Hoff on a direct kick. The goal was Hoff’s second of the season.

Six minutes later, Pablo Koe-Kropecher sent a corner kick to the left side of UMass goalie Nick Billman where it was controlled and netted by Anthony Tornaritis.

Action in the second half reflected the physical stalemate of the game’s first 20 minutes, until Harvard increased its lead to three. Tornaritis assisted his brother Nicholas in the 79th minute to give Harvard a 3-0 lead.

Matty LeMire scored the lone Massachusetts goal with less than five-minutes to play.

The loss drops Massachusetts to 10-5-2 all-time in the Classic.

“No games are more important than others. We want to win every game we play, but this weekend does mean a little more because it’s our home tournament,” Koch said.

After the game, Minutemen Bullen, Lemire and Rob Charest were named to the all-tournament squad.UMass returns to action Wednesday at Rudd Field to host New Hampshire at 3:30.