It was Zacarian's clutch play that kept Harvard in the game early on. In the first half, UMass barraged her with five penalty corners, but she held strong and stopped every one, and even managed to kick most of them out of the zone to silence any hope of a rebound.

Outside of Zacarian's stellar effort, the game's extreme length was made possible by clutch Harvard defensive plays in overtime and the aggressive Harvard offense which turned the game around in the second half.

Field hockey's overtime rule, which reduces the play from 11-on-11 to 7-on-7, opens up the game and makes every single defensive stop crucial. On at least three occasions in the pair of overtimes, UMass broke downfield with an odd man rush, and every time sophomore back Katie Scott stepped up, stole the ball, and turned the momentum in Harvard's favor.

Although the Crimson was outshot 22-5 on the day, the statistic was hardly indicative of the relative number of scoring chances each team had, especially in the second half.

Harvard controlled the tempo for most of the second half, keeping the ball out of its end. Most importantly, the Crimson shut the Minutewomen out of penalty corners for the half, after playing life-and-death field hockey in the first half.

Four of Harvard's five shots on the day came in the second half--most of them off of penalty corners taken by senior midfielder Liz Sarles.

One of the Crimson's best scoring chances of the day came when one of Sarles's shots rebounded loose in front of the net. Harvard was able to get at least two touches on the ball, but the UMass defense blocked everything and was able to clear.