And with each time an opposing attacker put a ball behind Schutt's stick, the faces of the Harvard players grew longer and the cheers from the bench became more desperate.

It was not until after the contest that the weight of the loss really began to sink into the minds of the Crimson players.

"This is the worst loss since I've been here," Kleinfelder said. "I have to believe that we are good."

Junior Genevieve Chelius, who scored Harvard's other goal long after the matter was decided, put it more bluntly.

"We should have played [on Saturday]," she said.

Now the Crimson must try and regroup to make the playoffs, which are still a possibility, since Harvard's three losses are to the top three teams in the nation.

There are four games left in the season for Harvard--Brown and Cornell are at home, while Dartmouth and Vermont are away--and the Crimson really have to win all of them to make the six-team playoffs.

"It remains to be seen how well we'll recover," Kleinfelder said.