Saturday night, the members of the Harvard women's lacrosse team heaved a collective sigh of relief.

That afternoon, the Crimson (13-1 overall, 6-0 Ivy) had barely squeaked by Vermont, 7-6, in its last regular-season match.

The victory, which came on the road, assured for the team an unchallenged position as the top-ranked team by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association poll.

"Vermont has a very unorthodox style of play," Harvard sophomore Brooke Earley said. "All 12 players play both offense and defense, so it's a more crowded game than we're used to. They give us a tough game each year.

"They were also psyched, coming off a big win over New Hampshire," Earley continued. "We were kind of wiped out from the emotional win against Dartmouth."

Senior Co-Captain Sarah Leary agreed with Earley's assessment of the aftermath of the match against the Big Green, which gave Harvard its sixth straight Ivy League title in a row.

"We didn't have the emotion we had against Dartmouth," Leary said, "So it was sort of a letdown. But our experience and our confidence in our ability gave us the win."

Blew 7-2 Lead

Harvard blew a 7-2 lead in the second half to allow the Catamounts to draw within striking range of a comeback victory, but held off the challenge at the end of the game to come away with the win.

"We put too much pressure on ourselves sometimes to win big," Earley said. "I think that it's the sign of a good team that we can pull out the close victories when we are not playing as well."

The team now looks ahead to the NCAA Championships, to be played in two weeks. The seedings for the six-team tournament are to be announced on today.

Harvard is expecting either a first-or second-place ranking the tournament, which would give them a bye to the Final Four.