After jumping out to a 5-1 start--its best start in nine seasons--the No. 18 Harvard field hockey team stumbled yesterday in Amherst, blowing a 2-0 second-half lead and dropping a 3-2 decision to UMass.

UMass senior Chrissy Millbauer scored twice, including the game-winner on a rebound off a penalty corner with 13:19 remaining in the second half, to snap a four-game losing streak for UMass (3-5).

Tri-captain Anya Cowan, who won Ivy League Player of the Week honors Tuesday for making 23 saves in games against No. 1 UConn and Yale, made just one save, taking her second loss of the season.

"I think it was mainly mental mistakes," junior midfielder Maisa Badawy said. "The sad thing is, we looked amazing in the first half. [UMass] had no shots, no corners. I don't even think Anya had to touch the ball, our backs did such a great job of keeping the forwards from receiving passes."

The Crimson (5-2, 2-0 Ivy), which had risen a spot in Tuesday's National Field Hockey Coaches' Association poll, led by 2-0 as late as 6:41 into the second, on the strength of goals by top strikers Dominique Kalil and Kate Nagle, each of whom notched her fifth of the season.

But Harvard, which had stifled its opposition of late, allowing just three goals in its last three games, including a 2-0 shutout at Yale last Saturday, couldn't make a lead stand up for the first time this year. Harvard's only previous loss came at UConn Sept. 22, a game which the Huskies led from start to finish.

Kalil opened the scoring with 6:02 left in the first, stuffing in the rebound of a Harvard shot. That goal, plus her assist in the second half, gave her 16 points on the season, good for third-best in the Ivy.

Nagle, who extended her scoring streak to five consecutive games, upped the Crimson's lead to 2-0 at 34:03 of the second, when she took a pass from Kalil and beat UMass keeper Michelle Crooks to the far post of the cage.

On a typical day, that would have been more than enough offense for the Crimson, which has allowed more than two goals only once this season, in a 5-4 overtime win over then-No. 14 UNH Sept. 17.