The unranked Harvard women’s lacrosse team didn’t merely pull out a win at No. 20 New Hampshire yesterday afternoon. It convincingly blew out the Wildcats 8-5 on their own field and dominated them from the opening draw.

Harvard (7-6, 1-4 Ivy), which a week ago was mired in the cellar of the Ivies following a three-game losing streak, has now won three straight in convincing fashion. The Crimson players believe that they’ve benefited lately from mental toughness gained in their defeats against challenging Ivy competition—such as No. 13 Dartmouth, No. 9 Yale and No. 1 Princeton.

“We were pretty much on the same playing level with [New Hampshire] in terms of athletic abilities and skills,” said co-captain and midfielder Heather Hussey. “It was all mental toughness and heart today.”

Harvard held leads of 3-0 after 12 minutes, 6-2 at the half, and 8-3 with six minutes remaining, so the outcome against UNH (10-5, 4-0 American East) was never in much doubt. It was far and away the Crimson’s best performance against a currently nationally-ranked opponent this season.

“We dictated the course of the game today from the first draw,” Hussey said. “It was just a matter of both the attack and the defense connecting really well with great midfield transition today.”

Goals from junior midfielder Katie Shaughnessy, senior defender Erin Kutner and junior attacker Katie O’Brien gave Harvard its 3-0 lead and the fast start it had often lacked this season.

UNH cut the deficit to 3-2 with two quick goals in the 21st and 22nd minutes, but the Crimson crushed the Wildcat comeback hopes with a commanding end to the first half. Junior midfielder Leslie Moroz, senior attacker Melissa Christino and Shaughnessy scored three goals in the last five minutes—including two goals 18 seconds apart in the half’s final minute—to open up a 6-2 lead.

“At halftime it was just such a great feeling and see that we had a four-goal lead,” Shaughnessy said. “Those goal were real key. Otherwise, who knows?”

The 6-2 score held for the next 18 minutes, and within five minutes of the Wildcats’ third goal, sophomore midfielder Jen Brooks and co-captain Hillary Walton upped the lead to 8-3 with just over six minutes left, so the game was well in hand.

“Since they were down four goals at the half, we knew they were going to come out even stronger in the second half,” Shaughnessy said. “But we were ready for them and we didn’t back down.”

In the victory, sophomore goalkeeper Laura Mancini needed to make just five saves, and seven different Crimson players scored. Only Shaughnessy had two goals.

“We just really clicked and played as a team. It’s just obvious from the scoring,” Shaughnessy said. “Everyone contributed.”

The victory pushed Harvard above .500 for the first time since early April. Staying above .500 with a win in either of its last two games against No. 6 Cornell (11-1, 5-1) and Brown (5-7, 1-4) would all but guarantee the Crimson a berth in the ECAC tournament—featuring the best four member schools that won’t make NCAAs.

“Our season is not over as of next Wednesday if we keep playing well,” Shaughnessy said. “Now we’re playing with a real purpose.”

Even if Harvard were to upset Cornell on Saturday and top Brown, its NCAA chances are almost nonexistent. Of the 16 national berths, seven are given automatically to conference champions such as Princeton and four will be given to the four ACC schools—leaving five bids.

Several conferences, such as the Big East, Colonial and American Lacrosse Conference are all but guaranteed to receive at least one at-large bid. Cornell, Yale and Dartmouth are three Ivy teams that will likely have better selection profiles than the Crimson. That leaves no room for Harvard in the tournament.

Regardless, the Crimson will never know for sure unless it beats Cornell on Saturday at 3 p.m. Harvard has failed by a variety of margins in its previous games against top-ten competition—a narrow one in its 9-8 defeat to Yale, a larger one against Princeton. The Crimson feels that the context of this weekend’s game will lead to a better result.

“With the momentum that we’re going to have, and with the confidence level that we have and knowing the importance of winning the remaining games to make postseason play, we have a lot of things going for us right now mentally,” Shaughnessy said.

Hussey feels that the team is at a turning point right now. If so, then a blowout against a marginal top-20 team is only the beginning of something better.

“We’re going into Cornell with the attitude, we’re going to set the pace, we’re going to dictate their play,” she said. “And I think we’ve matured so much since Yale and Princeton. We’re very resilient now. That’ll be very beneficial to us on Saturday.”