Despite two dramatic escapes worthy of an Indiana Jones movie, the Harvard women's lacrosse team couldn't pull out a win against the University of Massachusetts on Saturday. UMass scored a sudden-death goal in double-overtime to foil Harvard, 13-12.

"We outplayed them," said senior Keren Gudeman. "They got a lucky goal off transition. Everyone felt we were going to win. [UMass] felt pretty lucky."

Indeed, the ending thwarted a stirring Harvard rally, which began as the seconds inexorably ticked off the clock in regulation.

With time elapsing, the Crimson position seemed desperate. Harvard, which had blown an early 5-3 first-quarter lead, trailed, 10-9.

"We didn't have as many shots as we would've liked in the first half after we took the lead," Gudeman said. "We sort of sat on it."

But as regulation ended, the Crimson won two successive draws and tied the game, sending things into overtime.

UMass, though, seemed to wrest momentum from Harvard's hands by scoring twice. With 1:30 lingering, Harvard once more found itself needing a boost.

And once more, the Crimson found it. Harvard scored two goals in the final 30 seconds, earning a hard-fought ticket to double-overtime.

"It was pretty exciting," Gudeman said. "We felt we had the game won."

While the team eventually lost, the game bolstered Harvard momentum.

"We played a good game and did a lot of good things," said freshman goalie Keltie Donelan. "We just kept fighting. We were determined to the end."

"We knew that [UMass] was really up, and we were definitely up," senior Honor MacNaughton said. "It was a very highly-charged game."

And the contest brought forth a prophecy from MacNaughton for Wednesday's game against Boston University.

"We're going to brutalize B.U.," MacNaughton said.