Crimson sophomore Patricia Yao entered the game later in the second half and quickly made her mark with a tap-in goal off an assist by freshman Alexandra Conigliaro to make it an even match.

“[Yao] came off the bench and scored right away,” Nichols said. “It’s the definition of a superstar to come off the bench and contribute like that.”

Harvard reclaimed its lead just seven minutes later with sophomore Melanie Baskind’s goal off of a deflected pass by junior teammate Katherine Sheeleigh. This kind of composure was what made a road win possible.

“It was a bit of back-and-forth,” Nichols said of the latter part of the game. “But we were persistent and I’m really proud of the way our team responded.”

With a little over ten minutes left in regulation play, the Bulldogs set out to prove that no game is finished until the final whistle blows. Yale’s Kristin Forster managed to get a shot past Mann and it looked like the teams would be even again. But Kuzma, who is also a Crimson sports editor, slid into the net to stop the ball from crossing the plane into the goal.

“The difference was that stop on the line,” Leone said. “Otherwise it’s a 3-3 tie game and we’re going into overtime.”

Harvard kept its play strong and preserved its 3-2 lead to give the Bulldogs its first Ivy League loss in one of the best games of the season.

“Both teams played well, [and] all five goals were awesome,” Leone said. “Both of us tried to work our strengths, and it came down to us being able to put the ball in the back of the net one more time than them.”

The Crimson will defend its first place position and undefeated status in the Ivy League this Saturday against the Princeton Tigers at 11 a.m. at Ohiri Field.