But the game remained 2-0 into the break, and UMass came out fired again to start the second half, sealing the result with a goal just 6:27 in.

Midfielder Nicole Roberts beat one Harvard player and then Krein, who had charged out of the net. The rest was academic as she easily tapped the ball into the net.

"Harvard really picked it up the last 15 to 20 minutes of the first half," Rudy said. "At halftime, I told [my team] that two goals would not be enough. When we got the third goal, it looked like we had it."

It's hard to pinpoint one main reason why Harvard didn't play to its potential, but there were several factors that gave UMass the edge.

First, the Crimson was coming off an emotional 3-3 tie against Brown last Saturday, which left the squad one point short of the Ivy title. The pain of allowing two goals in the final 20 minutes was still in the back of many players' minds.

The team seemed to be a tad emotionally and physically drained, and that probably left the Harvard players one step behind the UMass players.

"We were working hard to get ourselves up for [UMass]--we did, and I'm proud of them," Wheaton said. But, "I think [the Brown game] was certainly a part of it."

Another difference was experience.

The Minutewomen have made the NCAAs the past three years and 11 of the past 12. They have reached the Final Four six times, including last year.

Harvard, on the other hand, hadn't made the tournament since 1984.

"There should be a difference [between playing a regular-season game and an NCAA game]," senior Sara Simmons said. "The field is the same size, the ball is the same size, everything's the same, but it's the big time. We were just nervous in the beginning."

One other factor was the tenacious Minutewomen defense. UMass keyed on stopping Stauffer and freshman Keren Gudeman, who scored two goals against Brown last week and who was the Crimson's second-leading scorer this season.

"We expected them to play, off Gudeman and play through their great central midfielder Emily Stauffer," Rudy said. "We wanted to defensively organize as quickly as possible, double up and make this game a little quicker than what they wanted to play."

Thus, Harvard won't face Hartford Saturday, but the 1994 campaign was a major success for a squad that most observer expected to finish, somewhere in the middle of the Ivy pack.

Yesterday's loss should be an experience through which the team will grow. A very strong nucleus of freshmen and sophomores remains, so the team has an extremely bright future.