Two historic performances from Lizette Perez and Grace Ramirez highlighted California Baptist University's day-one split at the Harvard Invite on Saturday.
Powered by six goals from Perez, the 24th-ranked Lancers nearly upset No. 15 Harvard to start the day in a 14-13 loss. CBU bounced back with a 10-8 win over Brown in the evening, thanks to 16 saves from Ramirez.
The Lancers improve to 9-8 on the season, while the Crimson moves to 11-1 and the Bears to 10-5. CBU ends the Harvard Invite with two games tomorrow against No. 18 Princeton and Gannon at 7:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m., respectively.
Perez did not only score in the loss to Harvard, as she added three assists and three steals. She became just the seventh player in CBU history to score six or more goals in a single game.
The Lancers faced a ton of adversity against the Crimson. First, Harvard rattled off the first three goals of the game. CBU called timeout and took a 6-4 lead by the end of the first quarter thanks to three goals from Perez and one each from Madison Gonzales, Katie Fugit and Maddie Meza.
The Crimson fought back to take over the lead in the second period, and ran its lead all the way to three, 12-9, with 12 minutes left in regulation. Two goals from Perez and another from Meza and Jamie Hutton brought CBU all the way back within a goal on two different occasions.
The Lancers gave themselves a shot at a tie in the final seconds, and the ball nearly snuck past the Harvard goalkeeper but the Crimson just came up with the save to avoid overtime.
Ramirez tied CBU's NCAA-era record for saves in a single game, with her 16 against Brown. It is tied for the third most in any Lancer game. Kira O'Donell led the offense with three goals.
CBU took a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on goals from O'Donell and Krista Krantz. Brown fought back to force ties at 3-3 and 4-4, but O'Donell and Gonzales scored the last two goals of the first half to give CBU a 6-4 lead at halftime.
Back-to-back goals from Fugit helped the Lancers take their largest lead of the game, 8-4, with 3:55 left in the third quarter. CBU's defense made sure the advantage stayed in place, as it held Brown scoreless over eight-plus minutes.