Stickwomen Stung by Yale, 3-1, Amid Complaints of Officiating

NEW HAVEN, Conn--The Yale bump-and-run defense shut down the Harvard boom-and-run offense and led the Eli's to a controversial 3-1 win over the Crimson field hockey team here yesterday.

The Yale stickwomen played a tenacious, aggressive brand of defense, at times using rough-and-tumble maneuvers that would make the Eli gridders proud.

The Crimson, intimidated although by no means outplayed, stayed in the game until the final minutes when a Margaret Dicicio goal sealed the contest with just under four minutes remaining.

"I'm furious, just furious," Harvard coach Edie MacAusland said. "My players were falling down left and right."

While collisions knocked Crimson stickwomen Kate Martin, Maureen Finn and Sue Field to the turf at various times, referee Tina Reinprecht felt that Yale's aggressive play was simply that--aggressive.

"You don't want to penalize a team for playing hard, aggressive hockey," she said, adding, "anytime one team is more aggressive than another, they'll usually win anyway."

The scoring began with 10:17 remaining in the first half, when Maggi Smeal, whose hard-nosed defense terrorized Harvard forwards all day, dribbled the ball past Crimson goalie Betty Ippolito.

Minutes later, the Elis went ahead 2-0 when Dicico powered a Christie Littlejohn pass home.

The Crimson, however, controlled the second half. Its lone tally came with 14:51 left in the game when Sue Field, constantly exerting pressure, notched her fifth of the year with a chip past Eli netminder Martha Finney.

Although the Crimson thought it had scored another goal in a scramble in front of the net with about ten minutes remaining, the goal was called back monents later when Reinprecht ruled offsides.

The incident was just one of a number of questionable calls that marred the game. Both coaches expressed antagonism toward the referees during the game, although Yale coach Richard Kentwell's only comment after the game was "we were very lucky...They played a strong second half."

"You don't come off the field like you want to shake their hands," Crimson back Sarah Yedinsky said after the game. You can't feel that they played the game the way it should have been played, and you're frustrated that they're getting away with it."