Women Booters Capture Ivies

The Harvard women's soccer team extended its reign as Ivy League champion another year by swamping Brown, 5-1, in the tournament final Saturday afternoon at the Business School field.

Crimson tri-captain and left-winger Julie Brynteson also repeated her 1978 performance notching a hat-trick against the Bruins and receiving the Most Valuable Player trophy awarded by the Ivy League coaches.

"Last year we wanted Harvard to be the first name on the continuing Ivy League team trophy; this year we established a tradition," Crimson coach Bob Scalise said yesterday. "Brown had owned that tradition but we changed that," he added.

For the Bruins, the final match was like a recurring nightmare. As in the past three encounters with Harvard, Brown came out aggressively in the first half but grew discouraged after 20 scoreless minutes. At this point the Crimson registered two quick goals and the Bruins folded completely.

The only new variation on the old theme Saturday was the field reflected Brown's dampened spirits and added to its woes. With a puddle four inches deep spanning the entire center circle and various other miniature oceans dispersed throughout the field, the conditions were better suited to the Crimson's manager, swimmer Maura Costin. However, Harvard halfback Sara Fischer justified her nickname, "Fish," while teammate Jeanne Piersiak's fancy footwork made Gene Kelly's "Singing in the Rain" routine look like kidstuff.

"The first time I started into the puddle I thought 'I really don't want to do this,' but once I went in I thought it was fun," Piersiak said. "I think the rain really bothered Brown, but we can adapt more easily to lousy conditions."

They Did It

Although the mud drastically cut down Harvard's speed, the Crimson's style of hitting long chip shots up to the forward line to get into scoring position proved more effective than Brown's style of working up the field on short passes. With very few exceptions, the Bruins' short shots died yards in front of the intended receiver and were open to anyone.

"I was very proud of the way the team way so aggressive on the field and took the ball away from Brown," Scalise said.

After exchanging threats for the first 20 minutes of the game. Harvard drew a corner kick and displaying her usual poise and accuracy, Brynteson placed the kick into the crowd. Although the Bruin defense managed to move the ball to the left side, Brynteson came in along the goalline and got enough angle on her shot to loft the ball over the goalie's head at 21:36 for the first Crimson score.

Less than two minutes later Brynteson made a mirror image of her previous corner kick. This time, however, when the ball sailed in front of the goal it kept going and with a little help of a Brown defenseman's head, landed in the net at 23:12.

As if two cornerkick goals weren't enough, at 30:20, Piersiak headed another Brynteson special for one of the cleanest plays of the year and Piersiak's first collegiate goal.

Although they had scored three times in under ten minutes, the Crimson booters were not through with the first half. As if to prove that she was capable of scoring on non-corner kick plays, Brynteson picked up a rebound off a shot taken by teammate Vera Fajtova and tipped it into the top right hand corner of the net from about 25 yards out. This 43:56 shot gave Brynteson a hat-trick and Harvard a 4-0 lead at the half.

The second period began slowly as the field got progressively worse and players spent more time splashing in puddles than passing the ball.

Keeping Options Open

Brown finally notched a goal at 34:54--its first in its last four games with Harvard--Michelle Mosher emerged from the mud in front of the goal and banged a shot home.

Not to be outplayed on the second half Harvard retaliated, icing its win at 43:12 when Kelly Bryan's shot on goal stopped in the mud about six feet from Brown goalie Priscilla Duffy. The abrupt stop caused a delay in Duffy's reactions and gave Harvard junior Sue St. Louis time to flick the ball up and out of the soup, making the final score 5-1.

Earlier Saturday, Harvard had destroyed Princeton, 3-0, to get into the finals while Brown had barely edged out Yale, 1-0.

The Crimson's Kelly Gately, St. Louis and Cecile Scoon all notched goals against the Tigers. Debbie Ching, who was totally frustrated by Harvard's Laura Mayer in the tournament final, scored the lone goal in Brown's second round match.