Women Booters Whip Bears

Something old, something new and something borrowed made Bowdoin blue, as the Harvard women's soccer team opened its season by icing the Polar Bears, 2-0, Saturday afternoon at Bowdoin.

Senior co-captain Sue St. Louis knocked in the booters' first goal and assisted on the second, freshmen goaltenders and roommates Ann Diamond (three quarters played, eight saves made) and Susan Newell combined for a shutout in their first varsity game, and Laurie Gregg, a visiting junior from Lehigh, outscrambled the Bowdoin goalie and two of her teammates to notch the second Harvard tally.

Pysche

"Bowdoin's a tough team. They play aggressively and they get so psyched up at home," coach Bob Scalise said yesterday, adding, "We needed to play with a lot of enthusiasm and intensity and that's just what we did."

The Crimson defense, buoyed by the assertive play of midfielder Gia Johnson and center fullback Jeanne Piersiak, allowed the Polar Bears just ten shots on goal.

"Gia and Jeanne really squared away the defense," Scalise said. "I think we're going to have a really tough defense all season."

In goal, freshman Diamond "directed the defense well," as Scalise said, plugging what had been the only hole in the Crimson's pre-season lineup.

"Our defense is so strong, I think I only had to save one hard shot all day," Diamond said yesterday. "I think I could have taken my books out there and done a little homework."

The Crimson offense relied on strong individual performances for their two tallies, getting organized in a scoreless first half and then scoring twice within six minutes in the second.

Striker

At 7:53 of the second half, freshman striker Joan Elliott took a pass from one of the fullbacks and slipped the ball through to wing Kelly Gately. Gately crossed to St. Louis, who outfought a defender for the ball and booted it over the goal line.

Just prior to the St. Louis tally, Gregg almost put the ball in the net and herself out of commission, when she met the ball, the goalpost and Polar Bear goaltender Cathy Leitch all at the same time. Both players were shaken up a bit, and Gregg sustained a minor shoulder injury, but stayed in the game to register the Crimson's second goal.

St. Louis picked up a loose ball in the corner and crossed it to Gregg, who kicked it out of a pack that included teammates Cat Ferrante and Elliott and into the net at 13:25 for Harvard's final goal.

Looking Ahead

With his team up by two goals, Scalise put some of his reserves in the game--"to get them over the first-game jitters"--looking ahead to later in the season.

The Crimson dominated the game throughout and ended up outshooting the Polar Bears by 21-10, but Scalise, although pleased by his team's overall performance, cautioned against over-optimism.

"We've got to use this game to get better," he said. "And we've got to get better with each game if we want to be ready for teams like UMass and Cortland State later in the season."

The booters will try to improve their record to 2-0 when they travel to Tufts tomorrow afternoon.