As in its previous two losses, Harvard had the definite advantage in the opening minutes before falling flat. Sophomore forward Joey Yenne's pass to junior Colleen Moore put the Crimson deep into Big Green territory and ultimately earned Harvard two corner kicks in the first five minutes.

But as the game progressed into the first half, Harvard's passing became more out-of-sync, fewer Crimson players were able to step up to the ball and Dartmouth attackers found themselves with more open space with which to work.

Dartmouth keeper Kristen Luckenbill--the 1998 Ivy Player of the Year and a pre-season All-American--played near flawlessly in goal to earn the shutout. Although the Crimson never sent any particularly tricky shots her way in the first half, she stopped every one cold.

In the second half, the Crimson had better chances. With 20 minutes left, Yenne, after maneuvering around in the box, got the ball to freshman midfielder Katie Westfall left of the arc. Westfall fired the ball the opposite way through traffic and crossed Luckenbill up, but the keeper's rightward dive was still enough to make the save.

Ten minutes later, Yenne set up Westfall again, but Westfall, running full force at the ball, sent it over the net and then fell down in exasperation.

The best chance came with just under three minutes remaining. Yenne, deep on the right side of the field, crossed the ball to Westfall. She just missed getting a head on the ball, but Luckenbill was down and beaten on the play, and junior forward Caitlin Costello had a play on the loose ball. Costello, like Westfall before her, put too much on her shot and fell over, leaving a heap of three exhausted players in front of the net and the ball behind it.

"I'm not unhappy at all with how we played," Wheaton said. "They scored a great goal and we gave up an unfortunate free kick goal. We had tons of chances and outshot them. We had two sitters inside that we didn't hit, and that happens. I would like to have finished a little more, but it just didn't drop and that's the nature of the game sometimes."