Despite the 9:40 billing, Blodgett was packed. The band even showed up.

"This was a peak weekend for us," sophomore Jesse Gunderson said. "Each game we came out stronger, culminating in the game against UMass."

Fired up by the attendance and importance of the game, Harvard jumped out to an early 2-0 lead behind goals from Bennett, who had a particularly strong showing all weekend.

UMass put two in the net to catch up, and then the two teams traded goals. With the score at 4-3 toward the closing of the fourth quarter, Harvard scored to even it at four apiece, and the two teams headed into overtime for the first time this season.

"It was awesome," Magnuson said. "All season we had known we could play with them, but hadn't been able to prove it.[Saturday night]we had the momentum and were actually doing it."

Two minutes into overtime, Harvard pushed ahead with a goal. But UMass countered immediately with a goal of its own to bring the first three-minute overtime period to a close.

In the second overtime period, UMass lobbed a ball into the goal with what proved to be the difference for the game.

"We were happy with our performance, even if it was extremely frustrating to lose the second game of the day by such a small margin," Gunderson said. "It is extremely hard to maintain the intensity and push throughout two overtime games, but we did it."

As the buzzer sounded, the tired Harvard players realized that there was only one remaining shot to go to Nationals: they had to beat Princeton in the third-place game on Sunday morning.

"It was so close, and easily could have gone either way," Magnuson said. "We were crushed, but also positive about the next day."

On Sunday, it just wasn't to be. The first three quarters were all Princeton on the scoreboard, as the Tigers pushed ahead 3-0. After adding another goal in the fourth, Princeton had an insurmountable 4-0 lead.

"Princeton just knew our weaknesses and were maximizing on them," Magunson said.

With a minute remaining, the Crimson turned up the heat, scoring two goals. But it was too little too late.

"We just didn't adapt to what they were doing," Gunderson said. "We also knew there was so much riding on the game."

With this defeat, Harvard's season came to an abrupt end, but the players have no reason the hang their heads. Not only did they play their best polo of the year, but they came within a single goal of the top two finishers.

With only on graduating senior--Becky Gaines--Harvard looks forward to a very promising 1999-2000 season.

"Despite the losses, the weekend was a good note to end on," Gunderson said.

"We are proud of our performance."