“[Harvard has] a lot of numbers in the middle,” Bowie said. “Our objective tonight was to get it out wide. In the second half we were getting a lot of scoring chances, and we were getting them wide.”

While the strategy did enable UConn to make a push, the Harvard backline—and especially Gunther’s heads-up goaltending—kept the Huskies from getting on the board.

“The way we play, people feel like they have the sidelines,” Wheaton said. “But they only have it through the midfield and they don’t get at our back that way.”

In the second half, Harvard had two solid scoring chances on back-to-back corner kicks by midfielder Orly Ripmaster in the 51st minute. Weed managed a shot off the first kick, but Caldwell made the save, and even when the rebound squirted loose, Crimson forward Caitlin Costello was too tightly marked to do anything about it.

Ripmaster’s second service found sophomore midfielder Caitlin Fisher, but Fisher’s header attempt sailed high.

“We need to finish those,” Wheaton said. “That’s the difference in a game like this.”

Gunther finished with seven saves. After having her three-game scoreless streak snapped in the 2-1 loss to Princeton, Gunther had vowed to be more aggresive. Last night she was, right up until the game’s final play.

Because of the red card she received, Gunther will have to sit out Harvard’s next game on Saturday against Dartmouth.

“I don’t know what else I could have done,” Gunther said of the play that drew the ejection. “If I let [Jalalian] touch it, she would have slammed it up.”

The Crimson now finds itself at a crossroads, much like it did last season. Then, as is the case now, UConn handed the Crimson its second straight loss coming off an eight-game winning streak. Last year, Harvard was unable to recover after the UConn loss and the Crimson dropped its last five games of the season.

With four games left on the Crimson’s schedule, Gunther says Harvard will make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

“We’ve played better the last two games [than during the losing streak last year],” Gunther said. “We’ve just had trouble finishing. Today was a tough break.”

After last night’s game, the team gathered on the far sideline for a players-only meeting. The Crimson will have its chance to turn things around against the Big Green Saturday.

“The question for ourselves is how do we react to this,” Wheaton said. “I think we have the character to come back and play. I’m counting on that.”