Huskies Blank Stickwomen

The Northeastern field hockey team entered yesterday's game against Harvard with a deceptive 0-3 record. Its losses have come against national powerhouses: Maryland, Iowa and Northwestern, and it was anxious to notch its first victory.

Harvard jogged onto the spongy, disadvantageous turf of Northeastern's Parsons Field after routinely beating a weaker University of Rhode Island squad 2-0 on Saturday. The little extra seasoning helped the Huskies grab a 3-0 victory.

The outcome avenged last year's 3-2 loss to Harvard in Boston Four league play, in which Harvard captured first place. Northeastern's coach, Cheryl Murtagh, however, stressed, "We weren't thinking revenge so much as to play well. Harvard is a good team, they always play us tough--especially defensively."

Harvard did play well defensively in the first half, containing Northeastern's arsenal of Debra Sweeney, Shelley Morris and Lisa Samson. Harvard played tenaciously, hustling to cover Northeastern free hits and making some effective short passes.

Midfielder Kristen Fowler did a nice job of plugging up the middle. Fullback Francie Walton was a corner-monster, deflecting several point-blank shots. And goalie Lisa Yadao came through with flying pads to thwart a semi-breakaway.

But except for two impressive rushes by forwards Sarah Downing and Loren Ambinder, Harvard failed to sustain an attack.

"We had some little combinations which worked well, but we have to get rid of the ball quicker," Harvard Co-Captain and mid-fielder Ceci Clark said. "We dug ourselves into a hole."

With 3:54 left in the first half, Northeastern struck. Senior Debra Sweeney cut through the Harvard defense like a runaway train and just inside the circle fired a shot into the left-hand corner of the net. The late tally gave Northeastern the momentum moving into the second quarter.

"In the first half they shut us down," Murtagh said. "I think in the second half we just started to click We began to frustrate them."

Indeed, Northeastern's long passes began to slice through Harvard's defense and most of the half was spent inside Harvard's fifty yard line. Despite several saves by Yadao, Northeastern rounded out the score with a controversial strike by Sweeney and another goal by junior Shelley Morris.

Northeastern peppered Yadao with 18 shots, while Harvard managed only five.

About her team's offensive showing Coach Sue Caples said, "We were on the defensive in the second half and you can't win games when you're always on defense. It's the little things we need to execute--we beat ourselves."

The consensus after the game, however, was that the team's play had improved since its game versus URI. The next contest for the Crimson isn't until Tuesday at Holy Cross.

"We did some excellent things in this game and there's a lot of time until the next game to work on things," Caples said. "If we play this way against most of our opponents we'll be victorious."