Seeking to overcome an opening loss to Stanford, the Crimson instead dug itself deeper in the second game of the day.

In an afternoon battle against No. 7 Pepperdine, Harvard struggled hard to improve on the morning performance. Bunn led the charge with a hat trick against the Waves, and Sechrest also netted two goals. Co-captains Tafur and Colin Chiapello also propelled the offensive game with three assists and one goal, respectively.

However, that effort proved fruitless, as the high-powered visitors outscored the hosts.

Sunday provided a tough challenge for the Crimson, as their first two matches of the season came against highly ranked teams from the West Coast.

“We have a lot of freshmen in the lineup, so it’s just taking us a while to play well together,” Tafur said. “I think that is where we had most of our pitfalls.”

STANFORD 21, HARVARD 5

The Crimson’s first game of the season was a tough match against West Coast powerhouse and third-ranked Stanford. Snow and Bylashov scored their first career goals, while Bunn led the way with two score, once during play and then a second time with a penalty shot in the fourth quarter.

Ridgley and sophomore Nikhil Suri split time in the net. Ridgley notched five saves, and Suri recorded two.

“Saturday, we were playing two of the top teams in the country,” Sechrest said. “It was tough. We definitely learned… We know that there is a long way to go, and we saw how much hard work it takes to get where we want to be last year.”

—Staff writer Ginny Miller can be reached at ginny.miller@thecrimson.com.