While the seniors were taking care of things on the offensive end, freshman midfielder Elaine Belitsos kept the Bears from scoring, hustling back to deflect an Anneberg pass after Debbie Mendel had come up with the steal for Brown.

Belitsos then jumped into the mix at the other end of the field, finding a slashing Brooks, who converted the pass for a 4-2 lead, forcing Brown to take a timeout.

But the hiatus didn’t break the Crimson’s momentum, as Caggiano was forced to make a save on a low shot from Belitsos.

Two minutes later, Mancini returned the favor, making a solid stop on an Anneberg drive.

But Caggiano blocked a Shaughnessy shot and Pierpont came from behind the net to score with 8:51 to play in the half.

Only 55 seconds later, Sarah Passano found Anneberg for a quickstick, tying the score.

Then, Christino completed her first-half hat trick with 7:35 to spare, taking a pass from Brooks and beating Caggiano over her left shoulder.

“[Chris]tino’s probably the most poised player, attacking-wise, that I can think of and it’s games like this where that really shows,” Brooks said.

After Christino’s tally, senior defender Erin Kutner, who recorded a hat trick of her own in 21 minutes on Saturday , lost the ball but picked it back up and scored to give the Crimson the two-goal lead.

Senior midfielder Heather Gotha tried to extend the advantage before the break, but couldn’t as she missed just wide on a shot and then was stopped by Caggiano on a second attempt, leaving Harvard ahead 6-4 at the half.

Brown appeared to regroup at halftime and came out firing, but Mancini held her ground. She stopped an Emily Blanton shot and then poked a point-blank attempt from Anneberg away from the top left corner of the net.

Twelve minutes into the half, Gotha tried again, but still couldn’t beat Caggiano.

Then, Pierpont sliced through the Crimson defense, only to miss just wide. But thirteen seconds later, she redeemed herself on a free position shot to pull Brown within one.

Rottenberg evened the score, and then the Bears appeared to pull ahead when Anneberg picked out Jocelyn Moore, who put it by Mancini. Moore, though, was in the crease when she scored, negating the goal.

Harvard capitalized on the opportunity to regain the momentum as Christino found Kutner, who beat Caggiano left- handed.