With an aggressive show of crisp passing and quick stick-work straight from the opening whistle on Saturday, the No. 16 Harvard field hockey team sent the message that it would not be beaten with a potential NCAA Tournament berth on the line.

It took just 140 seconds for freshman forward Kate McDavitt to put the Crimson ahead, and Harvard (12-5, 6-1 Ivy) never looked back in a 4-0 triumph over Columbia (11-6, 3-4 Ivy).

"I think we're really happy with the way we finished," senior forward Kate Nagle said. "It was huge, our last Ivy game."

In the opening minutes, Harvard controlled the ball into the Columbia zone and earned a quick penalty corner. McDavitt drove in the rebound off the initial shot to give Harvard a 1-0 lead.

The Crimson continued to out-maneuver and out-pass the Lions while holding on to its lead, before finally striking again in the 31st minute.

On Harvard's fifth penalty corner of the day, the Crimson employed a rarely-used option that involved two quick passes. From the top of the circle, co-captain Liz Sarles passed left to sophomore back Katie Scott, who again passed left to junior back Katie Turck. Turck's shot deflected the opposite way to the right side, where junior forward Jane Park pushed a slow roller through traffic that found its way into the left corner of the net.

Freshman forward Mina Pell, who had come agonizingly close to scoring against Dartmouth and Yale in earlier action, had much better luck against the Lions.

With two minutes remaining in the half, Pell controlled a pass from Nagle and found the left corner of the net wide open a few yards away. Lion keeper Molly Starsia-Lasagna, who had been out to the right, tried to rush back, but Pell's shot narrowly beat her to the goal line.