The goal nudged Harvard into the lead, but Brown soon clawed its way back to 5-5. Midway through the fourth quarter, though, Gunderson regained the lead for the Crimson with her third goal of the night.

The Bears, becoming increasingly desparate, began to attack the Crimson goal furiously. With a minute and a half left, junior goalie Danielle McCarthy came up with a game-saving sequence of stops in a scramble in front of her net.

Then, with 36 seconds remaining, Harvard thought it would just have to run out its 35-second shot clock and escape with the victory. However, the Crimson lost the ball with less than five seconds on the clock and a Brown player began streaking towards McCarthy. Just as she was about to shoot, however, Magnuson came out of nowhere to pressure her as time ran out, allowing Harvard to preserve its undefeated record.

While the offense scored just enough to win, the contest was the Crimson's "best defensive game I remember," according to McCarthy. Brown did not even get off a shot from the hole set, with all its goals coming from the perimeter and on breakaways.

After playing Brown in a rematch next weekend, Harvard will not have long to rest before taking on Connecticut College and the University of Massachusetts later in the day.

With fewer games this season as a result of the sport's recent move to NCAA status, Harvard needs to beat both Brown and Massachusetts to be considered the top team in the east and gain the region's automatic berth in the ECAC championships.

"If we can establish ourselves as a team that's going to win from the beginning, it betters our chances each time we meet up with [the league's upper echelon teams] again," Gunderson said.

Certainly, this win over Brown can serve as the first step towards accomplishing that goal.