Tigers Tag Cantabs With 1-0 Twin Killings

PRINCETON, N.J.--What hurt most was not the fact that the loss mathematically eliminated the Harvard field hockey squad from the race for the 1984 Ivy League title. Nor was it the fact that the team lost at all.

What hurt most was how it happened.

For after 84 minutes of scoreless play and with just six minutes left in the second and final overtime period Saturday, the host Princeton field hockey squad just barely found the back of the Harvard net.

That was it all it took, though, to send the Cantabs down to a 1-0 defeat and down to one of their most demoralizing setbacks of the year.

The Crimson's eighth shutout loss of the 1984 campaign dropped the squad's overall record to 5-8 and assured the club of its first losing season in three years.

More importantly, the last-moment defeat killed hopes of a run for the 1984 Ivy title. With the loss, Harvard fell to 1-3 in the league and two-and-a-half games behind Dartmouth; which with a 1-1 tie Saturday at Brown assured itself of at least a tie for its first Ivy crown since 1979.

That's a major disappointment for the Crimson squad, which many felt at season's start would be the Ivy team to beat. And Saturday's loss was perhaps the biggest disappointment of them all.

Because after a 1-0 upset of the nation's then-second-ranked University of Massachusetts squad a week and a half ago, and after a 6-0 shellacking of the University of Rhode Island just last week--a victory that saw the Harvard club score more goals in one game than any Crimson team since 1977--the Cantabs seemed primed to tame the Tigers.

Especially considering the fact that Princeton entered the contest at 1-9-2.

But Harvard couldn't find a way to put the ball past the Tigers, who always seem to play the Crimson well.

"It's the story of our season," a dejected Harvard Co-Captain Andy Mainelli said after the game.

Despite innumerable scoring chances--the best of which came when Mainelli just missed a beautiful opportunity after the Tigers scored the day's lone goal--the stickwomen failed to follow up their initial shots on goal.

That's the problem that's doomed the Harvard squad all year, and which once again proved fatal Saturday.

"It seems like we outplayed them," Mainelli said. "We had our chances."

But when just six minutes stood between the Crimson and a double-overtime scoreless tie, disaster struck.

The Stickwomen failed to clear the Tigers' initial shot on goal, and Patti Owens beat a diving Harvard freshman goalie Kristen Abely for the game-winner.