Nobody said defending the Ivy League title would be easy for the Harvard women's ice hockey team.

In fact, it has become extremely difficult. The Crimson has played seven games on the Ivy League calendar, and of those, five have gone into overtime. The latest overtime saga was written Sunday afternoon, when the Crimson took a 2-1 decision from Cornell in Ithaca.

The Crimson got off to a flying start as sophomore Char Joslin tallied a goal four minutes into the game. But nobody else scored again during the next 50 minutes of playing time.

It looked like Harvard, with its territorial advantage (it outshot Cornell, 33-25) could hold off the Big Red down the stretch, even if Cornell pulled the goalie for a sixth attacker.

But the Crimson didn't count on a late penalty. Junior Christine Burns was whistled for one. And, combined with a sixth Cornell attacker, the Big Red Power-play created a six-on-four situation on the ice for the final minute of play.

Mindy Bixby's shot over junior netminder Jennifer White's shoulder with five seconds left in regulation sent the game into overtime.

"[White] gave [Bixby] two inches, and she took them," Harvard Co-Captain Julie Sasner said.

Harvard has grown accustomed to extra-period play. It has posted an 2-1-1 overtime record.

"It's pretty hard to get up for all those overtimes," White said.

In Harvard's last overtime game, Sanser scorned with under two minutes left in the extra stanza to beat Princeton. Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise who won this game.

A pileup resembling a rugby scrum developed near the Cornell net. A couple of Crimson players had a whack at the puck until Sasner slid the frozen disc under a maze of players to end the contest.

"I was really psyched that we won," said right winger Julia Trotman, who assisted on both Crimson goals.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The previous evening Harvard went to the Rochester Institute of Technology to exact revenge for an earlier 3-0 defeat at the hands of RIT. But the Tigers had different ideas, and as a result, Harvard fell, 5-3.