On Saturday afternoon, the Crimson was stilllooking for its first win, and eighth-ranked Brownwas the most likely team to give it to them. Butthe Bruins had played Harvard tough all season,and they weren't about to stop during the nationaltournament in front of their home crowd. The twosquads were tied at 1-1 after the first stanza,but the Crimson slowly moved ahead to record a 7-3victory while Brown splashed around with a sloppyoffensive performance.
"The team got its confidence back," Kitayamasaid. "We played well together and we knew wecould beat them. In the first two games, we cameout slow and we got down by so much, peoplestarted to lose it"
The Crimson almost lost it again againstseventh-ranked Michigan in the nightcap ofSaturday's slate of games, even though it carrieda four-goal cushion into the final quarter. ButHarvard wasn't about to let the Wolverines slipby, hanging on for an 8-7 win.
"We hadn't beaten them at Easterns," Saltonsaid. "We only tied them and then advanced by goaldifferential. We were really psyched to beat themoutright."
Harvard lost its momentum in its final match ofthe season against sixth-ranked Cal PolytechnicalInstitute, but fouls weighed the Crimson down as aconfident Cal Poly squad coasted to a 15-4trouncing.
Harvard stumbled to its traditionally slowstart, falling three goals behind in the firstquarter.
Skyler Defiler
Late in the second period, Satenstein wasposted up in the hole and had been taking a lot ofabuse from the hole defender. When the All-Easternfreshman was dragged under-water and given a kneeto the face, she surfaced and started to pound onher adversary in a fit of rage. The refereeejected Satenstein for the game for a brutalityfoul.
Normally, an ejection leaves the offending teama woman down for the rest of the game, but sincethis was the national tournament, the refereeallowed Harvard to sub in in order to keep thegame competitive.
Harvard took another blow in the third quarterwhen Tri-Captain Kate Ford was ejected for herthird major foul. Cal Poly then made easy work ofthe Crimson, to drop Harvard to sixth placeoverall.
"We obviously would've liked to have playedbetter, but we're psyched," Salton said. "It's thehighest ranking we've ever had at sixth in thecountry."
Haffery was equally pleased with his team'sperformance.
"At the beginning of the season I neverexpected them to get this far, but they did with alot of sacrifice and determination," he said