But the Crimson would not quit. Winters and Colligan proceeded to take over the game, as Harvard shifted into a quick-strike offense to offset Yale's attempts to drain the clock.

"In the beginning, we were taking shots that I was told [Yale goaltender Joan Sullivan] wasn't good at," Colligan said, "[Later] we just fired and took good hard shots."

Winters tallied twice--at the 11:01 and 8:50 marks--and Colligan added another with 2:56 left to play to cut the lead to one.

"Megan Colligan did an amazing job," Davison said. "But Sarah Winters was [even better]. She was just working really hard the entire game."

At this point, the Elis desperately tried to keep the ball away from the Crimson, but it would not be successful. With 42 seconds left, Colligan ran through the Eli defense--which conveniently camped in the shooting area with dubious legality for the last five minutes of the game--and knocked in the would be tying goal.

Would be, if her stick was just a little less deep. The referees judged that Colligan's pouch could hold the entire ball, though barely.

"I play with exceptionally high walls on my stick," Colligan said. "It was legal for the part of the stick where I hold the ball but not at the bottom. It went down to an interpretation."

It was an interpretation that Harvard lost.

All in all, it was a strange game--the wind chill was far below freezing, which did wonders to Harvard's offensive style of long passes.

But the Crimson knows that none of these are fair excuses. Harvard lost, plain and simple.

"It would have been a completely different game if the weather had been nice," Davison said, "but that shouldn't be an excuse."

YALE, 10-9 at Ohiri Field YALE  6  4  --  10 Harvard  4  5  --  9

G:Yale--Koegler 3 (19), Mallon 2 (15), Karmatz 7, Langhoff (10), O'Sullivan (1), DelaCruz (2); Harvard--Winters 3 (12), Davison (5), Colligan 3 (9), Chelius (6). A: Yale--Karmatz 5, Scott. Harvard--Henenssey, Winters, Colligan. S: Yale--Sullivan 10; Harvard--Schutt 9.