Only good luck and the amazing skills of Leary kept Harvard alive, as she recorded nine saves and three Tiger shots bounced off the pipes.

Then the Crimson recovered from its funk. It ripped off four straight goals and, once again, this team seemed bound to drink champagne Sunday afternoon.

An unknown freshman by the name of Sarah Winters who had scored only six goals all season, tore through the Tigers defense like a Rocky Mountain blizzard, tallying four goals in the 10-5 Crimson victory.

On Sunday, Harvard fell behind 4-0 against Maryland, just at it had two yeas before in the title game against the Terrapins.

And, as it did in 1990, it came back to take the lead.

But this time around, the story had a different ending, because this team simply lacked the experience its predecessors had. When the pressure was on, the 1990 Crimson maintained its game plan, continuing to run its set offense.

The 1992 Crimson, however, took its lead and sat on it. The offense stalled, as Harvard was content to pass the ball rather than attack the net.

As a result, the Crimson coughed up the bell enough times for Maryland to come back.

Maybe, then, it's too much for us to have expected that this team could have mirrored the success of the 1990 squad.

This team played well. It too could have been the undefeated national champions. But it wasn't. Not this time. A well-deserving Maryland team took home the trophy, and the Crimson has nothing to be ashamed of.

Only at Harvard, in a program this strong, is second place considered to be second best.