Experienced Bears Down Stickwomen, 3-0

Some people dream in color.

Some dream in black and white.

But after the Harvard field hockey team's 3-0 loss Saturday, the Crimson must be having nightmares in Brown--Bear Brown that is.

Harvard (1-2-0 overall, 0-1-0 Ivy) lost its second straight at Cumnock Field in a game that saw an experienced Brown team (4-1-0 overall, 2-0-0 Ivy) assert its authority over the young Crimson squad.

"Brown was bigger, stronger, faster and quicker," Harvard Coach Sue Caples said. "They took it to us today, and they were just a better team. I didn't think it could get tougher than our last loss but it did."

An aggressive Bear attack forced the contest to be fought mainly in the Crimson's end, and Harvard could not handle Brown's constant pressure.

The Bears pinned the Crimson back in its half of the field, and even the shoe-laces flying, body-sacrificing defensive play of freshman netminder Jessica Milhollin (18 saves) could not stop the Brown surge.

"We have a very experienced offense," Brown Coach Wendy Anderson said. "We kept pushing and pushing until some of our juniors and seniors were able to capitalize on Harvard's inexperience."

Experience is one thing, but no team can hope to generate any sort of offense if it does not shoot the ball.

The Crimson offense has only mustered four goals in three games while the Bears have scored 12 times in their five matches.

In Saturday's contest, Harvard's attack came up with three shots and forced only two penalty corners for the entire 70 minutes of the game. (Brown had 24 shots and 11 penalty corners).

The Crimson's only opportunities resulted from individual effort, but as a team Harvard was as fragmented as crumbled tortilla chips at the bottom of a bag of Doritos.

At times, Harvard actually looked as if it were missing a player.

Or players.

Brown, on the other hand, was able to cover the field easily with crisp, accurate passes that sliced through Harvard's defense.

The Bears also controlled the midfield, intercepting passes and blocking any Crimson attempts at clearing the ball from Harvard's end of the field.

"Our execution was just not at the level that it needed to be at," Caples said. "We weren't concentrating, and we made a lot of costly mental errors."

Brown was led by Co-captain Amy Mulligan who scored two goals and Ivy Rookie of the Week Kerri Whitaker who tallied the third.