While the defense was holding Dartmouth by the neck, the Crimson's offense mercilessly attacked the Big Green goal. Harvard ultimately had fewer shots than Dartmouth--25 to 26--but many of Dartmouth's opportunities never had much of a chance to hit net.

It did take long for Harvard to gain the lead. Only a minute into the game, senior Sarah Downing (two goals, three assists) paced behind the Dartmouth goal with the ball and then spotted sophomore Megan Hall open in front.

Downing immediately fired a pass to Hall, who one-timed a shot past Big Green goaltender Kim Cohen.

"[We] work in practice on plays for isolating people," Downing said. "They worked really well today."

Dartmouth's defense clamped down after that, and the score remained at 1-0 for the next 10 minutes. But then, Harvard's offense burst open.

First, Downing deked by a defender and shot past Cohen. A minute later, after the Harvard defense stalled another Dartmouth attack, junior Sarah Winters took a pass on the transition and flipped a shot on net.

Walton added a goal, and after a Dartmouth timeout, Winters tallied her second. So in a period of only 3:34, the Crimson extended its lead from 1-0 to 5-0.

"It's frustrating [for them] not being able to score against us," Kleinfelder said. "Their defense could only do so much."

However, with 10:08 to go in the half, Dartmouth did get on the board with a bull run on net by Big Green midfielder Margaret Field.

The teams then scored a goal apiece to end the half with Harvard ahead, 6-2.

With the beginning of the second half, it looked as though the Big Green might get back in the game. For the first 15 minutes of the period, Dartmouth held Harvard scoreless, while adding two goals of its own on transition.

"There was a little bit of a lapse," Downing said. "Defensively we weren't getting back fast enough."

After the second of Dartmouth's two goals, the Harvard players held a short team meeting in front of their net to get themselves focused.

"We all said, `This is bullshit,'" co-captain Margot McAnaney said.

Thankfully for the Crimson, the players were right.