F. Hockey Falls, 2-1

Defeating a top-20 team is not easy. In fact, defeating any team takes a lot of effort. But after losing to 18th-ranked New Hampshire and unranked Maine last weekend, the Harvard field hockey team knew that just keeping up with the 16th-ranked Connecticut (at Storrs) would be a formidable task.

And--except for the first four minutes--the Crimson achieved its goal, keeping the Huskies off-balance with strong defense and ball control.

But Connecticut scored two goals in a frantic opening four minutes and survived the Crimson's pressure over the remaining 56 to win, 2-1.

"We had a very good warmup, but when the whistle blew, it didn't click--we just watched," Harvard Coach Sue Caples said.

Harvard (0-3-0) dominated from the end of the first half on, but couldn't score until co-captain Francie Walton tallied from the corner with two minutes left.

"Those first [four] minutes cost us," sophomore goalie Jessica Milhollin said.

Connecticut racked up 12 shots in the first half and 19 for the game, but Harvard managed only four for the entire match.

"It's sort of hard to score when you don't get many shots," co-captain Emily Buxton said.

After the mud had settled (the field was in terrible shape in wet, clammy Connecticut), the Crimson rebounded and controlled the rest of the game.

The defense forced several turnovers instead of watching the Huskies run up and down the field as it had in the fatal first four minutes.

"Each game we've played, we've gotten better," Caples said. "We are gradually building confidence, knowing that we can compete with the top teams."

Fortunately, the Ivy League season doesn't start for the Crimson until October 2 at Cornell. Pennsylvania is the defending champion, while Princeton is currently ranked 11th in the nation, so Harvard has to speed up the learning process in the next nine days if it has any hope of wining the Ivies and picking up the automatic NCAA tournament bid.

The team must create more scoring opportunities, especially within the circle. If the Crimson fails to achieve this, then it just won't score too many goals or win very many games--0, 1 and 1 goals have already put up a depressing three in the loss column.

"These [non-league] games are really important for us," Buxton said. "We need to get recognition and need to get more opportunities to score."

Harvard will get its next chance at recognition against Providence on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Cumnock Field.