Women Booters Drop Contest at Keene

The Harvard women's soccer team suffered its first defeat of the season yesterday, losing 3 to 1 at Keene State College in New Hampshire. The defeat leaves the Crimson at four wins and one loss for the season.

Keene drew first blood on a bit of Harvard bad luck. Wendy Zoelmer directed a shot towards the Crimson net from the sideline, but an unfortunate bounce off defender Debbie Field's leg put the ball into the net. Harvard's Kelly Landry evened the game up later in the first half with her sixth goal of the season.

The two teams remained tied through the first half, but Keene came out strong in the second half, using goals by Angle Nelson and Laurie St. Pierre and a stubborn defense to take the victory.

Although Keene was able to win the game with solid play at certain times, most Harvard players were in agreement that Keene was not dominant. "They're not necessarily the better team, they just happened to outplay us a bit today," said goalkeeper Lisa Rowning. Midfielder Inga Larson added that Harvard suffered "several slumps" which might have been the difference in the outcome.

Almost all the Crimson booters agreed this game was not a letdown after Saturday's 14-0 whitewashing of the Penn Quakers. "There was no letdown. Those were two entirely different games," said Rowning.

"Keene was excited to play us." Larson added. "They only have three tough games a year, so maybe they were more revved up for this one."

The women booters will be in action again this Saturday against Ivy League rival Cornell. Larson says she doesn't know what to expect from the Big Red but since "every good team can have one or two losses a season and we already have outs, we have to take each game as it comes and win each one."