The Crimson seemed as if it would ride its momentum into another win yesterday, when Gudeman and Stauffer converted a carbon copy of their play on Saturday, giving Harvard a 1-0 lead over Fairfield under five minutes in.
But controversy struck the Crimson 10 minutes later when the referee ruled that a Harvard defender had sent a deliberate pass back to Krein, who corraled the ball with her hands.
According to the rules, the attacking team gets a direct kick if the pass is intentional, but the Harvard defender had lofted the ball into the air backwards with her back facing her own goalie--an unlikely deliberate play.
The Lady Stags converted on the following play and added another goal off a corner before intermission.
"The first goal should never have happened," said co-captain Genevieve Chelius. "The ref made a very bad mistake."
Harvard regained its composure in the second half, outshooting Fairfield by a 16-0 margin, but Veach kept denying the Crimson the equalizer until freshman Kristen Bowes redirected a Stauffer pass into the net with 7:08 left. However, the Crimson just wasn't able to get that third goal despite a 25-0 shot advantage over the final 75 minutes of the match.
"We just couldn't get it done," Simmons said. "We're all a little tired from all the games, but the comeback was a real tribute to our strength and depth."
Despite the tie, the weekend was an overall success for a Harvard program that has struggled to get over the .500 mark the past couple years.
"We were really psyched up," Stauffer said. "We wanted to control our destiny in the Ivies and we can now do that."