PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The future of the Harvard women's hockey team, the preseason favorite to win the national championship back in November, is in doubt.

The Crimson, which will likely fall from its current No. 2 position when U.S. College Hockey Online releases this week's national rankings later today, fell to No. 6 Dartmouth in overtime, 3-2, on Saturday at Brown's Meehan Auditorium in the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament. The Big Green beat Harvard in all three meetings this season.

That means the Crimson will have to wait by the phone until tomorrow for a call from USA Hockey, the sponsor of the AWCHA national championship tournament, to find out if it has a spot in the four-team tournament.

No. 1 Brown, the host and top seed of last week's conference tournament, defeated Dartmouth in the ECAC final yesterday. The Bears already have an automatic bid to the Final Four, as does No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth. Harvard is one of the teams in contention for the two at-large invitations along with Dartmouth, Minnesota, which is tied with Duluth at No. 3, and No. 5 Northeastern.

"We've proven ourselves as a team with a lot of character and a lot of talent," said junior winger Tammy Shewchuk, one of three Crimson players to earn First Team All-ECAC honors. "It's not fun when you're not in control of your own destiny, but we've been a very solid team all year and, when you compare the west to the east, I don't think there's any doubt that the ECAC is a stronger league. We've stayed in the top two or three all year long so I think that's a pretty good case right there."

Harvard is clearly one of the top teams in the country, but now it can take nothing for granted. Dartmouth proved that in the conference semifinals, when the Big Green showed it was indeed possible to beat a good team three times in the same season.

The worst part about Saturday's loss was that Dartmouth exposed a very simple formula that can beat Harvard: strong goaltending, a collapsing defense and taking shots in transition.

Dartmouth netminder Amy Ferguson turned in an impressive performance. She stopped 35 Harvard shots, nine of them in overtime. Ferguson stuffed Harvard's vaunted top line from point-blank range, and she used her pads well against scorching slapshots from the point. The Crimson outshot the Big Green both times in the regular season, and poured 37 shots on net in the semifinal loss.