80 minutes of play was not enough to decide a winner in Sunday’s matchup between the Massachusetts and Harvard field hockey teams. After a period of regulation and double overtime, the Crimson (7-1, 2-0 Ivy League) snapped the Minutewomen’s (7-3, 2-0 Atlantic 10) seven-game win streak, winning 2-1 in the sixth round of a shootout.

“We are constantly competing with and we’ve proven on Friday that we can beat a top team in the country,” head coach Barb Weinberg said of her team’s Sunday performance. “Harvard is another top team in the country and we out-stated them today so we’re at a place where we need to start knowing that we belong in those games and that we can continue to win those games.”

Tied 2-2 after five rounds of shootouts, Harvard’s Lara Beekhuis sealed the deal for the Crimson, dodging around UMass goalkeeper Myrte van Herwijnen and sending the ball into the bottom right corner of the net to seal the Harvard victory.

Kitty Chapple was first up for the Crimson in the shootout, sending the ball past Van Herwijnen to put Harvard up 1-0. UMass quickly made it 1-1, as Paula Lorenzini sent the ball at Harvard goalkeeper Tessa Shahbo, narrowly making it into the goal. Both teams traded misses, with Martha Le Huray and Emily Bronckers failing to connect for the Crimson while Claire Danahy and Hannah De Gast couldn’t find the goal on the UMass side.

Beekhuis tallied the second shot made for Harvard, matched by Minutewoman Elena Cloconeanu, making the shootout 2-2 before the sixth-round tiebreaker.

“We’ve been playing such good hockey, and we need to keep building on this momentum and not let this be a setback for us,” Weinberg said.

Harvard scored first in the back-and-forth battle, notching a goal four minutes and 11 seconds into the third quarter. Chappel sent a long ball to Kate Oliver who found Marie Schaefers open in​​ the corner. Schaefers dribbled to the top and hit the ball from the arc of the circle, connecting just right to weasel the ball around Van Herwijnen and into the goal, putting Harvard up 1-0 through the end of the third quarter.

The Minutewomen opened up the fourth quarter with scoring on the mind, as De Gast caused the third penalty corner for UMass at 60:32, just seconds into the game’s final quarter. Danahy received the ball from Lorenzini, smacking it from the top right of the circle into the bottom left corner of the goal, tying the game 1-1.

“All weekend long the two of them [Lorenzini and Danahy] have been critical,” Weinberg said. “Running from back to front on the field, getting back defensively and being able to attack going forward.”

Harvard had its chance to end the game in regulation after a corner was called in its favor with one minute and 57 seconds left, but the insert was missed, sending the ball down the length of the field and the two teams into overtime.

One round of overtime came and left without either team scoring, sending the matchup between the two Massachusetts powerhouses into double overtime. Harvard and UMass each had opportunities to score as both teams initiated penalty corners, but both remained unsuccessful in scoring, keeping it 1-1 at the end of 80 minutes.

“Number one is our overtime penalty corners,” Weinberg said when asked what she wants to focus on going forward. “We need to really take a good look at that. We probably need to get more training in with our shoot-outs and become really comfortable with those given as you get further and further into conference play there is more of a chance of overtime because the games are so tightly contended.”

UMass had a slight edge over Harvard, leading 9-8 in shots during 60 minutes of regulation. The Minutewomen showed control throughout, shooting 17 shots to the Crimsons 13, with 13 shots on goal to Harvard’s eight.

Van Herwijnen played a full 80 minutes for the Minutewomen as well as six rounds of the shootout, ending with seven saves. Shahbo had 12 saves for the Crimson.

The Minutewomen are back at home on Friday, Oct. 4, taking on St. Louis at 3 p.m.

Lucy Postera can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X/Twitter @lucypostera.