The first half of the game was characterized by a back and forth style of attack by both teams.

Harvard was denied an apparent goal with seven minutes remaining in the period. Ripmaster booted a free kick from outside the Cougar box that was headed past the BYU goalkeeper by sophomore forward Colleen Moore. The referee, however, whistled the play dead, contending that Moore had been offsides.

"I didn't have a good angle of the call," Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "But the way it was explained to me by the referee, it didn't sound like an offside."

Although the call went against the Crimson, Wheaton remained confident.

"We knew we were going to score," he said. "It was just a matter of when."

Although the Crimson was denied this opportunity, it continued to press throughout the rest of the game and eventually broke through with Totman's goal with just seconds left in regulation.

"This was a huge win for us," Larson said. "We feel like we haven't been getting any respect, but with this win, we proved that we are as good as a top 15 team. We are a top 15 caliber team."

"We really needed this win," Wheaton added. "We had played a lot of top teams close, but we had to pull one out."