PRINCETON, N.J.—The promise that the Harvard field hockey team showed all season of coming away with an Ivy championship abruptly dissipated in the second half at Princeton on Saturday.

The No. 15 Crimson (9-5, 4-1 Ivy) kept even with the No. 14 Tigers (8-5, 5-0) for the first half, but Princeton took advantage of Harvard breakdowns early in the second period and dominated the rest of the way for a 4-1 victory.

“I think we played the kind of hockey [that] we needed to play for the whole game in the first half, but unfortunately we broke down in a couple areas,” said junior forward Kate McDavitt, who scored the lone Crimson goal.

The margin of victory was Princeton’s closest against any Ivy opponent this year. The eight-time defending league champion Tigers have outscored their five Ivy opponents this season by a wide 35-4 margin. Princeton improved to 57-1 against the Ivies over the past nine seasons.

Harvard knew it couldn’t afford to make any major defensive errors against the Tigers, but mistakes were made and Princeton capitalized on a sufficient number of them.

“I don’t know if [their scoring] was necessarily created off their good play,” said Harvard coach Sue Caples, “it was good play off our mistakes more.”

Harvard’s best field hockey came in the latter portion of the first half. Princeton took a 1-0 lead 13 minutes into the game and dominated possession up until then, but the Crimson didn’t let down.

The very first time McDavitt received the ball in the circle at the 18-minute mark, she took advantage. She spun her back to a defender just inside the top of the circle, and fired a backhander inside the far right post to tie the game, 1-1.

The last 15 minutes of the first half was the only stretch where play was as even as would be expected between a battle of two first-place teams.

Each team had opportunities end-to-end. Princeton earned one penalty corner and Harvard earned its only two corners of the half, but neither team could convert.

Harvard could not maintain that standard of play in the second half. The rejuvenated Tigers dominated possession again, and earned a corner within the first five minutes of the half. The Crimson narrowly evaded disaster on that corner but couldn’t clear the ball out. Princeton ultimately made Harvard pay when sophomore back Kelly Darling snuck in to receive a pass at the left side of the circle, and beat Crimson goalkeeper Katie Zacarian inside the right post.

Darling had also netted Princeton’s first goal. It came as sophomore attacker Natalie Matirosian sprung free on a breakaway. Zacarian deftly stopped the first shot, but the rebound was centered to Darling for the score.

Harvard tried to answer Princeton’s second lead as quickly as the first, but it was not to be. The Crimson won its third corner of the day within minutes of the Princeton goal, but the opportunity was wasted when the Harvard pusher and the stick-stopper could not connect. Within minutes of that missed opportunity, 2001 Ivy Player of the Year Ilvy Friebe iced the game for the Tigers.

Friebe, the nation’s leading scorer, was held entirely in check while junior back Jen Ahn guarded her. But that didn’t stop Friebe from making a damaging impact on the scoreboard.

Ten minutes into the half, Friebe opportunistically one-timed the ball into the net straight off the stick off a Crimson player, who had been trying to carry the ball out of the circle. Harvard would not recover from that 3-1 deficit.

“We got a little frazzled when they went up two goals,” Caples said. “We lost something a bit. We didn’t regroup quickly.”

Princeton sophomore attacker Natalie Matirosian scored off a penalty corner a few minutes later to up the score to 4-1.

Harvard would not mount any considerable attack until the final 10 minutes, when it earned another corner and sprang junior forward Mina Pell down the sidelines twice, but on every occasion All-American goalkeeper Kelly Baril played the ball cleanly and kept the Crimson from scoring again.

For yet another season, Princeton sprang off the bench in celebration at the final whistle. On the other end, the Crimson players cast their sticks to the sidelines and huddled together in collective disappointment.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.