White added a goal in the closing minutes of the first half to give UCLA a 4-0 advantage.
But the Crimson came out fighting early in the second half. Durack came up with three saves in the first 13 minutes of the half, and Harvard started to press forward on offense.
“I’ve been in those games a few times, and I’ve never seen a team do what we did in the second half,” Leone said. “Knowing the season’s ending and just how hard we fought to the very, very last drop. That was really exciting to see even though [UCLA] was just so much better.”
The Crimson had its best chance of the game when Purce and Fleischman combined for the team’s only shot on goal. But the Bruins capitalized on the counter attack to score the first goal of the half and take a 5-0 lead.
UCLA struck two more times in the 74th and 79th minutes of the game to round out the scoring at 7-0.
“We came away from the weekend just being happy that as a program we’ve worked our way to a place where we have the opportunity to play teams like [UCLA],” Margolius said.
—Staff writer Eileen Storey can be reached at eileen.storey@thecrimson.com.