The Harvard field hockey team (12-6, 6-1 Ivy) celebrated its most successful season in nine years, finishing No. 14 in the nation with the promise of more to come.

"It's only setting in now what an unbelievable season it was," said senior Kate Nagle. "I couldn't have asked for a better season."

After a 2-0 loss to Princeton on October 21, the Crimson's hopes of an Ivy title and NCAA berth were fading. But solid wins over Dartmouth and Columbia over the next couple of weekends gave the Crimson a strong finish for the regular season as well as the team's first six-win Ivy season in Harvard history.

"Going into the Princeton game, it would have been a dream come true to win that game and gain the top rank," co-captain Maisa Badawy said. "Hats off to Princeton, they are an amazing team. But there was no question that we weren't going to take it to Columbia and Dartmouth."

With a sound regular season behind it, the Crimson was awarded its first NCAA berth since 1991.

"After the loss to Princeton, we knew we had an outside chance to make it to NCAAs," Nagle said. "We toughed it up and trooped on. NCAAs has, season in, season out, been a goal of the team."

"Making NCAAs was such a rewarding accomplishment," Badawy said. "We proved ourselves and that meant a lot to us."

Harvard faced fourth-seeded Wake Forest in the first round, a game that sent the Crimson home with a 6-3 loss. Harvard exchanged goals with the Demon Deacons for the first 40 minutes of the game, but Wake Forest scored three unanswered goals to advance to the next round.