Co-captain midfielder Carly Dickson would get a look on goal six-and-a-half minutes into the contest after connecting off a Crimson penalty corner, only for it to be stopped by Columbia goalie Christie O’Hara.

The Lions’ goalie is also among the nation’s best, appearing 10th on the NCAA’s list in saves per game (8.29), and 11th in save percentages (.779).

Eleven minutes into the first half, Columbia’s Gabby Kozlowski found Adriana de Vries inside Harvard territory for an easy tap-in to bring the tally to 2-0, where it would remain for the duration of the half.

“At that point it kind of neutralized to where Columbia and [we] were playing pretty evenly for the rest of the second half,” Tassopoulos said.

The Crimson returned from halftime prepared to apply some much-needed tweaks to its game.

“We came out really strong and we were ready to make adjustments,” Tassopoulos said. “And I think a lot of those adjustments did take place to where we were able to really put some pressure on them and start to get more of our offense going. It was definitely more of a game in the midfield.”

Despite its opponents halftime adjustments, the Lions edged even further ahead of Harvard by converting on a penalty corner in the second period.

The Crimson defense successfully blocked the initial corner shot, but the ball found its way to the back of the net off of a ricochet, digging Harvard into a three-goal deficit from which it would never recover.

“After [Columbia’s third goal] we were still pushing,” Tassopoulos said. “I would say it was pretty even for the rest of the game; we just weren’t able to put the ball away. We were moving in the right direction; we just kind of ran out of time.”

The season-ending loss marked the end of Dickson and McGillivray’s careers with the Crimson.

“It was a good effort by everyone on the team,” McGillivray said. “We battled hard for 70 minutes, but it just didn’t really come together for us in the end.”