Its fortunes dwindling late in the game, the Harvard field hockey team needed a spark.

Boston College, ranked 15th in the nation, led Harvard 2-1 in the second half. The two-game Crimson losing streak threatened to extend itself to three, miring the team further into a slump.

Enter freshman Kate Nagle.

Nagle, who had scored her first career goal earlier in the game, now tallied her second to propel the Crimson into overtime and, eventually, to a 3-2 win.

"We kind of just needed that," said junior Judy Collins. "[Kate's second goal] was the key point of the game."

However, Harvard needed to take a few more twists on an already-arduous road to victory.

After neither team scored in the two periods of overtime, the game went into penalty strokes.

After the first round of shots, the teams were still deadlocked.

In the second round, though, the Crimson captured the win.

"Going into double overtime is always really tiring," said junior Penny Fairbairn. "You have to be very cautious with passes. You don't want to tire yourself out and end up chasing the ball. It's a drain on your legs."

In the two rounds of strokes, sophomore Anya Cowan confounded the Eagles in net.

"Anya was unbelievable," Collins said. "She made some great saves."

The heroics of Nagle and Cowan saved the day for a Crimson team that struggled early in the game.

"Our spark was not there," Collins said. "For the whole game, we were not focused. We were chasing the ball, playing bad defense, and not executing the simple things."

Coupled with the caliber of the opponent, this made matters difficult.