Stanford had Harvard on its heels early with four unanswered goals in the first ten minutes of the game. Sophomore attacker Alexis Nicolia responded with two goals for the Crimson to cut the Cardinals lead in half. Stanford soon regained the advantage and closed out the first period with an 8-3 lead.

Nicolia and Romeo combined for six goals to pace the Crimson offense. Rookie midfielder Maeve McMahon also contributed a goal, collecting two ground balls, and adding a draw control.

Early in the second period, the Cardinals buried the Crimson with four goals in succession to take a commanding 12-4 lead.

“I thought Stanford [was] really physical and they pushed us off the ball,” Harvard coach Lisa Miller said. “I think that we had to adapt to that before we could start putting points on the board.… Then we settled down, and we started to chip away. But you can’t give that kind of lead to a good team and expect to come back.”

Trailing by eight with just 17 minutes left to play, the Crimson captured the momentum by tallying four consecutive goals. Stanford sophomore attacker Meg Lentz retaliated and scored her fourth and final goal with 9:13 left in the game to halt Harvard’s run and increase the Cardinals’ lead to five. Two late Crimson goals were not enough to close the distance, as Stanford held on to close out the win, 14-10.

Coming off an impressive freshman campaign, sophomore goalie Kelly Weis anchored the Crimson’s defense with nine saves. This was not enough to fend off a strong Cardinals’ offense, which outshot the Crimson 31-21 on the afternoon.

“I’m actually not disheartened by this game at all,” Miller said. “I know [my players] were a little disappointed in themselves. But I feel like this is a learning experience, and we’re going to get better from it.”