Icewomen Slide By Tigers

PRINCETON, N.J.--The Harvard women's hockey team continued its newfound winning ways this weekend, defeating Princeton, 3-2, in the Tigers' own backyard.

The Crimson (5-6-1 overall, 3-3 Ivy) knocked off the Tigers (3-8-1, 2-3) for the fifth straight time at Hobey Baker Rink.

Junior Co-Captain Sandra Whyte worked her magic for the second consecutive Ivy contest, notching two goals and an assist to pace the Crimson.

"It's so nice to have Sandra back," Harvard Coach John Dooley said. "She elevates everyone's game."

The Crimson got excellent play from the defensive pairs of Bev Stickles-Francie Walton and Sue Cullinane-Beth Messmore, which helped to shut down a dangerous Princeton attack.

Harvard senior netminder Gillian D'Souza also had a solid game. Although forced to make only 14 saves, D'Souza came up with a number of big blocks down the stretch to keep the Tigers at bay. The aggressive forechecking of the Harvard forwards kept the play in the Princeton zone, and D'Souza was rarely tested.

"It was a total team effort," Dooley said.

First Blood

Seven minutes into the first period, the Crimson opened up the scoring. Whyte carried the puck over the blue line and Simonds came up, splitting the Tiger defenders. Taking a lead pass, Simonds left the Princeton blue-liners behind her and beat Tiger goalie Shelley Pottorf. The tally, which gave the Crimson a short-lived 1-0 lead, was Simonds's third goal in the last two games.

Princeton knotted the score less than five minutes later when freshman Lisa Manche took a feed from Tiger Co-Captain Mollie Marcoux and beat D'Souza.

Harvard scored the only goal of the second period when Whyte blasted a slap shot past Pottorf to give the Crimson a 2-1 lead.

Whyte collected her second goal of the afternoon a minute into the final stanza when she converted a Bev Stickles pass to give Harvard a 3-1 advantage.

Princeton made the final minutes interesting when Marcoux scored on a nifty backhand shot, a goal that allowed her to tie the Ivy League mark of 104 career points.

Despite that goal, the Harvard defense did a good job of marking Marcoux, a potent scorer and playmaker, relatively quiet.

"We obviously had to pay a lot of attention to her," Stickles said.

Harvard was able to buckle down and keep the Tigers away from the net in the final seconds. Kudos to the defense, Stickles and Walton in particular. Cullinane also showed a lot of courage playing regular shifts on a visibly sore right leg.

The team feels its chances in the Ivy tournament are much improved. With home games still left against Cornell, Princeton and Yale, the Crimson seems more than likely to be among the top four at tournament time. Only the top four make the playoffs, which will be held at Cornell this year.

"I am confident we can just beat anyone in the league," D'Souza said