A young team, high expectations, and one of the toughest schedules in the nation combined for glimpses of brilliance and a season of dissappointment for the Harvard women's lacrosse team.

The Crimson played well all season, but could not buy a break and score an upset against any of the top-10 teams it faced.

Despite the Crimson's inability to pull off a major upset, Harvard gave numerous national contenders serious scares in the extremely competitive Ivy League.

After opening the season with wins against UMass, 7-6, and Boston College, 13-9, the Crimson registered its first Ivy win in a 11-10 triumph over Brown on Ohiri Field to improve its record to 3-0.

The win over UMass avenged a humiliating 10-3 defeat in last season's opener and, combined with the victory against Brown, a team Harvard lost to a year ago, the early success raised expectations.

Spring break, however, put a damper on those dreams.

Although Harvard did better than expected in a 21-8 loss to No. 1 Maryland, the high-scoring Terps exposed just how easily a solid game can be ruined by a series of quick back-to-back scores.

After the loss to Maryland, the Crimson headed to New Haven for the most important game of the young season.

The Crimson led Yale, 4-3, at the half, but in the second half, Yale junior Kate Flatley pocketed the winning goal on an assist from senior Heather Bentley for a 7-6 Eli victory.

The Crimson never truly recovered from the defeat at Yale. Despite repeated strong first-half performances, Harvard could not seem to maintain its momentum over a full 60 minutes.

In the first half, Harvard was as good as any team in the country.

After halftime, however, it was a Jeckyl-and-Hyde act for the Crimson, who repeatedly had trouble scoring in the final 30 minutes and had the tendency to give up quick back-to-back goals immediately following halftime.

"We have talked about the second half as a team," said sophomore defender Hilary Walton during the season. "And most people agree it's mental and physical exhaustion that's hurting us. The draws after halftime are critical, and we've lost a couple that have allowed the other team to score a couple quick goals on us."

With games only three days apart against No. 2 Princeton and No. 9 Dartmouth, inconsistency caught up with the Crimson in the heart of its schedule.

Thanks to a pair of goals from junior co-captain Alli Harper, the Crimson jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and trailed Princeton by only two at the half.

The Tigers, however, roared out of halftime with four goals in the first three minutes to take a commanding 11-5 lead en route to a 15-6 victory.

Against Dartmouth, the story was all too similar. Harvard jumped in front 7-4 and held a one-goal lead at the half on the strength of two goals from sophomore Lizzy Frisbie.

Dartmouth senior Jacque Weitzel came alive after halftime, however, scoring seven of her game-high nine goals in the second half to almost single-handedly defeat Harvard in a 15-9 Big Green victory.

Although Harvard wasn't expected to win either game, the Crimson had a chance to steal both games and let those chances slip away.

The team, however, is young and will have a chance to learn from those mistakes next season.

"We were definitely a more confident team this year," Harper said.

With nine freshmen and eight sophomores, the core of the team still has two or three more seasons in it.

Leading this young bunch were the two co-captains, Harper on attack and senior Jeanne Ficociello on defense.

The loss of Ficociello and fellow senior Becca Brown will be felt deeply on defense next season.

Walton, however, should be able to tackle a larger role on defense, while Harper and fellow junior Lauren Corkery will provide experience to steer a still young attack.