At dinner tables across America, parents tell their children to finish their dinner or to not expect any dessert.

Who would have ever thought that this would be analogous to the Harvard field hockey team?

With its 2-1 come from behind win over host Springfield Wednesday night, the Crimson finished a game strong for the first time in its last four tries. And victory certainly tastes sweet.

After Springfield scored the first goal of the game within the first 10 minutes of play, Harvard (0-0 Ivy, 2-3 overall) could have come mentally unglued, as it did earlier this season.

But no, The Crimson swallowed their proverbial mouth fulls of zucchini and battled back to win.

"We started back on our heels," junior goaltender Jessica Milhollin said. "After they scored we realized that we weren't going to win without trying."

And that was that. Springfield never really got its offense on track for the rest of the game, as shown by the fact that Milhollin only had to make four saves.

It was then only a matter of time--about 20 minutes--until Harvard did get the ball between the posts.

As the first half was winding down, a long corner shot came crossing through the goal front. Freshman attacker Jessica Bowdoin was in the right place at the right time and deflected in her team-leading third goal of the season.

Bowdoin, by the way, has scored all of her goals in Harvard's two victories.

Nevertheless, the halftime whistle blew soon after Bowdoin's shot, and while a break from the action will often take momentum away from a team, it only got the Crimson more psyched.

"We're just tired of losing," Milhollin said. "We really wanted to win."

And so, midway through the second half, the inevitable came. Off another corner shot, sophomore midfielder Daphne Clark received a pass and whacked it past the Springfield netminder for the 2-1 lead.

But the Crimson still had to hold on to the lead--something that the team has recently had trouble with. In its game against Providence on Saturday, a 1-0 lead turned into a 3-1 loss.

Thankfully for Harvard, there was no instant replay today, as the scoreboard lights didn't change again.