NCAA Just Says No To Booters

Sound the gun, pull down the curtain and turn on the fat lady's microphone. The season's over for the Harvard women's soccer team.

The NCAA announced yesterday that the 8-2-3 Crimson would not receive one of the 12 bids to the 1987 national tournament.

A disappointing 1-0 loss to Brown on Saturday knocked the booters out of the race for the Ivy League title that Brown and Cornell will now share. Neither Brown nor Cornell received an invitation to the tournament.

If Harvard had beaten Brown, it would have shared the title with Cornell. The Crimson, which was ranked 14th nationally and second in New England last week, probably would have received a tourney bid for its superior overall record.

"We knew going into the Brown game that we had to win," first-year Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "That's the nature of the game."

The end of the season marks the end of the Harvard soccer career for six booters. Co-Captains Tracee Whitley and Karin Pinezich, midfielders Julie Sasner and Julie Agar, and fullbacks Cari Lyn Beck and Lori Barry have hung up their jerseys for the last time.

This year marked the first time no Ivy League team has been represented in the NCAA Tournament.

The Bruins, who also knocked Harvard out of a share of the title on the last day of the '86 season, were the sole Ivy representatives in last year's tourney.

Two teams which Harvard faced this season will be playing in the tournament, which starts this week. UConn, who tied the Crimson, 1-1, in October will match up against Rutgers, later this week.

If the Huskies can win, they will face second-ranked UMass, which crushed Harvard, 4-0, earlier this season.

North Carolina, the only team in the nation to beat the Minutewomen, is the first seed. N.C. State is the third seed, and Berkeley is fourth.