"The PK should've been given to Kelly," Kerr said. "Even Columbia's coach [Dieter Ficken] came up to me after the game and conceded that the refereeing is what killed us."

The non-call proved even more detrimental in the 62nd minute as Columbia senior forward Yassine Khendek blew a shot to the right of junior goalie Dan Meijas to put the Lions up 1-0.

About 10 minutes later, Columbia senior forward Tiger Fitzpatrick added to the score by taking a cross in the air and knocking it home.

"Columbia won the game on their counterattack, " Kim said. "We obviously dominated the possession, but they would clear the ball long and let their quick forwards get to it for the breakthrough."

Down 2-0, Harvard worked on a comeback. In the 77th minute, freshman forward Grayson Sugarman went down in Columbia's penalty box with a shove from Lions sophomore midfielder Michael Ching. Kelly took the direct free kick and scored with a low shot to the left.

Toward the final whistle, the Crimson made numerous fruitless attempts to tie the score. In the last minute, Sugarman and George both had shots on goal. But time ran out too soon as Harvard added to its four-game losing streak.

"We fought back," Kim said. "It was a good effort at the end. We just had too many mental breakdowns during the game...sometimes the execution wasn't there."

"It was disappointing, yes," Kerr said. "The seniors wanted to go out with a win...but that's just the way it goes sometimes."