"The major thing was Kate [Schutt]," Colligan said. "She was playing out of her head."
Meanwhile, the Crimson attack was finally finding a way past Hoffman. The tall Loyola netminder proved to be a difficult opponent for Harvard shooters, as she would crouch down low and tempt her opponents to shoot up high.
Colligan finally put Harvard on the board 15:21 into the first half with a shot off a free position that seemed to trickle over Hoffman's stick.
The second Crimson goal came after Winters' free position. Her shot was deflected, but Winters was able to control the rebound and pass it to Davison, who stuffed the ball into the net.
After this goal, the scoring stopped for a while, until there was a little bit of deja vu for Harvard.
With about four minutes left in the half, Loyola seemed to have scored its fifth goal of the game. But Colligan asked to have the stick inspected by the referees, who found it to be illegal. In Harvard's last game--a 10-9 loss to Yale--Colligan's game-tying goal was nullified due to the same call.
"I just thought that the game was getting out of control," Colligan said. "I was going to call a stick check anyway--basically all sticks are illegal. I just wanted to stop their momentum."
The Crimson would soon take some more wind out of the Greyhounds' sails. With 30 seconds to go in the half, Harvard foiled a Loyola attack and got the ball back. Twenty-two ticks of the clock later, Winters had scored.
That end-of-the-half tally set the stage for the rest of the game. No longer would Harvard be trying to catch up; instead, the next 36 minutes would be a tooth-and-nail battle.
"In the second half the defense played really well," Schutt said. "I was determined not to let any more goals in."
Except for one case, she met her hope. After Schoyer beat Hoffman to tie the game, Givens gave Loyola the lead yet again on a wide-open free position with six minutes left. But the Crimson responded quickly.
Thirty-four seconds later, Colligan held the ball behind the Loyola net and hit Winters cutting across the shooting zone wide-open. Winters whipped a shot high into the net to tie the score yet again.
After that, the Crimson would only need one more goal. The team got it 55 seconds into OT.
"We started to attack the right side of the goal more [later in the game]," Colligan said. "That's how Megan [Hall] scored--it was much more effective that what we were doing in the first half."
The victory allowed Harvard to get back a little at Loyola, who beat the Crimson twice last year, 11-10 during the regular season and 9-4 in the playoffs. It is also Harvard's first win against a top-10 team this season.
"It feels great to finally win a close game," Chelius said. "It's nice to have a little revenge for last year."
HARVARD, 6-5 (OT) at Ohiri Field Loyola 4 1 0 -- 5 Harvard 3 2 1 -- 6
G:Loyola--Harrington (3), Johnson, Given; Harvard--Winters (2), Colligan, Davison, Hall, A:Harvard--Winters, Colligan. S:Loyola--Haffman 106-6-1 17; Harvard--Schutt 6-7-2 15.