The Harvard women’s basketball team’s season of inconsistency, intense disappointment and eventual triumph concluded as a challenge for the sports psychologists.

As the undisputed preseason favorite, the Crimson seemed to have a guarantee on its third straight Ivy title last November. The return of its entire starting lineup, including co-captain and two-time Ivy Player of the Year Hana Peljto, solidified its early claim on the crown.

Come March, however, Harvard (16-11, 9-5 Ivy) found itself tied for second place with Brown and garnering even that high of a spot was a battle.

“Relative to our expectations, this is painful for us to be second and not first,” Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “It’s painful for us not to go to the NCAAs because we think we would represent the league best.”

Talk of Harvard sailing through the Ivy season ended abruptly with Dartmouth’s 93-88 overtime upset of the Crimson in the league opener on Jan. 10.

Harvard’s 6-5 record entering the Ivy season had not been a sufficient hint of the trouble brewing as two of its losses were down-to-the-wire thrillers against ranked opponents—Rutgers and Colorado.

The defeats handed to the Crimson by Northeastern and Rhode Island, however, may have indicated the inconsistency that plagued Harvard all season.

“We feel a lot of pressure to win and it has made us not play well,” Peljto said after a 76-67 loss to Quinnipiac on Jan. 13. “When teams are close we tighten up a little because we think we should win every game.”

This sentiment extended throughout the Crimson season as Harvard took one step forward, but fell one step back every weekend.

Hopes of bouncing back from its Ivy-opening loss to Dartmouth were dashed at Cornell on Jan. 30 when the Big Red beat the Crimson 66-64 off of an overtime buzzer-beater. Harvard followed with a solid win over Cornell the next day, but the pattern of winning one game and losing the other continued for three straight weekends.

Halfway through the season, the Crimson boasted one of the top scorers in the nation in Peljto, but its losing record (3-4) forced Harvard to reconsider its position as a contender for the title.

“I think up until this point, we felt like we had a chance to avenge all our losses, and we still do, but having the four losses so early in the season doesn’t bode well for the Ivy title,” Peljto said after Yale garnered its first Ivy victory over Harvard on Valentine’s Day.

No team has won the title with four losses, thus, a new goal was set for the Crimson—to avenge all of its losses.

Harvard began its task in Lavietes Pavilion with back-to-back wins over Cornell and Columbia, and a dominating win over Yale the following weekend. The Crimson was set to continue its warpath through the league against Brown on Saturday, Feb. 28—Senior Night.

The class of 2004 is praised as one of the most talented ever, but on the night when their parents and friends gathered in Lavietes to celebrate their successes, the seniors instead watched their team collapse on defense and give up an embarrassing 95-70 contest to the Bears.

“This is probably one of the most disappointing experiences of my life,” Delaney-Smith said after the game. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve lost this badly here in 15 years.”

All the pieces were in place for the final salute to Lavietes, down to the party set up for after the game and the appropriate milestones passed for the co-captains.

On Friday night, Peljto had become the third woman in Ivy League history to score 2,000 points. On Saturday night, co-captain forward Tricia Tubridy knocked down her 100th career three-pointer.

On Saturday night, the Crimson was also forced to acknowledge the unfamiliar role of spoiler that it would fill for the rest of the season.

“If you can’t be the winner, the next best thing is the role of the spoiler, and we’re embracing it,” Tubridy said.

Harvard succeeded in it, too.

The Crimson beat Princeton on the way to its match against Ivy champion Penn on the Quakers’ Senior Night. Harvard gave as good as it had gotten in the Palestra, taking the lead in the final minutes and spoiling Penn’s final hurrah at home with a 72-67 win.

“There’s no better feeling than revenge,” junior guard Rochelle Bell said.

The Crimson rode the momentum into the final contest Peljto, Tubridy and senior point guard Bev Moore would play in a Harvard uniform—a rematch with Dartmouth that would determine second place in the league.

Harvard trounced the Big Green 82-59, holding Dartmouth freshman phenom Elise Morrison to only 15 points while Peljto headlined with 26.

“I think for us to finish the way we did is a real testament to our character and our pride,” Delaney-Smith said.

The Crimson watched Connecticut obliterate the Quakers 91-55 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament from home, but likely not without pride in Harvard’s season’s end.

—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at jesslee@post.harvard.edu.