Bears Sting Icewomen, 4-3

After staking Harvard to a two goal lead entering the final period, Brown recorded three unanswered goals to defeat the Crimson, 4-3, last night at Bright Arena.

Harvard drops to 5-5 overall and 2-2 in Ivy League play while Brown improves to 6-4 and 3-1, respectively.

It was the line of freshmen Joy Woog and Andrea Spruell along with senior Lucia Murphy who burned the Crimson, accounting for all three third period goals.

Within 31 seconds, the Bears scored two goals to even the score at 3-3. Both of the tallies were the result of a crowd of players in front of the Harvard net. Freshman goaltender Erin Villiotte, who made a number of terrific saves in the game, could do very little to stop the Bears close-range shots.

"We broke down on defense," Harvard coach John Dooley said. "We didn't clear our zone effectively and it cost us."

"We thought we had the game already won," Villiotte said. It was the entire team, not just one individual, who let down."

Flash in the Pan

For the first two periods the Crimson looked much stronger than the visiting Bears. Senior right-winger Ginny Simonds scored the only goal of the opening stanza, knocking home a bouncing puck linemate Sandra Whyte had sent on net.

Co-Captain Bev Stickles fed a streaking Whyte midway through the second period, Whyte then beat Brown goalie Kate Presbrey to put the Crimson up by a pair.

Bears Strike Back

Brown came within one when freshman Andrea Boudreau stuck a loose puck in the back of the twines. Whyte looked like her old self, breaking away from everyone and beating Presbrey on a text-book backhand.

Brown finally stormed back in the final period, outworking and out-hustling the Crimson.

"They are a pesty, aggressive, hungry team and they never quit," Dooley said.

Still, Harvard did play well. Stickles and the rest of her underclass defensive corps (sophomore Francie Walton and freshman Diana Clark, Winkie Mleczko and Villiotte) were sharp. The offense was also quite active, forcing Presbrey to make 31 saves on the night. Senior Jen Minkus was aggressive as usual while the trio of Simonds, Whyte and sophomore Joey Alissi created many opportunities.

After the second period third year Bear coach Margaret Degidio-Murphy told her players to take a look at all of the Ivy banners hanging from the rafters at Bright. She told them if they wanted it more than Harvard they could win this game.

She was right.

The Crimson can avenge the loss on Monday when it travels to Providence to face the Bears. Harvard meets the University of Toronto at 3 p.m. this Friday.