F. Hockey Wins 'Gut Check' vs. Big Red

For the Harvard field hockey team, a gut check isn't picking out core classes.

It was what happened to the Crimson Saturday against Cornell at Cumnock Field.

Late in the first half and early in the second, Harvard had a 1-0 lead, but the Big Red was putting on serious pressure.

The question was, could Harvard hold on to the lead? Or was the Crimson about to blow a lead, as it has done earlier this season?

Harvard passed the check. Sophomore Daphne Clark's second goal of the game iced the Crimson's 2-0 victory and threw away any misconceptions about the team's intestinal fortitude.

The win gave Harvard a win in its first Ivy League game, and evened its overall record to 3-3.

"They had a few lapses, but they brought themselves back," Harvard Coach Sue Caples said happily. "I felt pretty confident [that we would win] throughout the game-Cornell really never posed much of a threat."

Some of the players, on the other hand, weren't quite so sure, though.

"I was worried," captain Megan Colligan said, "because we had been playing so well [early in the game] that we would take it for granted. Going up 1-0 can be the kiss of death."

Harvard didn't waste any time setting themselves up for this possible jinx.

Only 2:15 into the game, the Crimson earned a corner shot chance. For those that don't know, this meant that sophomore Courtenay Benedict would stand at the baseline and pass it to a teammate-with all the defenders having to run out of the goal box to set up protection.

This would set up a perfect opportunity for a really hard shot. Thus, junior Carrie Shumway would stop the ball so that Clark, Harvard's Gatling gun, could let loose.

Unfortunately for Cornell, this doesn't give the defense enough time to set up the hay bales.

"[Cornell's] fly out was kind of slow," colligan said.

And so with this corner shot early in the first half, the game plan worked to perfection. Benedict to Shumway to Clark to net. 1-0 Harvard.

"We've been working hard on corners," Clark said. "But I have to thank Courtenay and Carrie-it doesn't work without them."

The Crimson, however, did not continue this pace of a goal every two and a quarter minutes and so the score remained at 1-0 until halftime.

But Cornell was not quiet for all this time, as the Big Red attack threatened to retie the game.

"We just needed to calm it down and work more together as a team," Clark said.

Cornell was held off throughout the end of the first half by Harvard's defense, led by junior goaltender Jessica Milhollin's 12-save shutout. And then when the teams came out after halftime, the Crimson got things worked out.

"In the second half." Colligan said, "The talk was good and we felt together."

At that point it was only a matter of time until the Harvard offense struck again. Rightfully so, it was off a corner.

The only thing different was that it took place on the other end of the field. There was the same passing sequence, the same crack of Clark's stick, the same missile flying past the Big Red goaltender.

And at the 22:00 mark of the second half, the Crimson side took a deep breath of relief.

"Cornell can be unpredictable," Caples said, "but we were in possession of the ball a lot.

"It was nice insurance."

Harvard's next games are, to say the least difficult. On Wednesday the Crimson travel across the river to Boston University, who defeated 10th-ranked Delaware on Friday night.

Then, on Saturday morning. Harvard takes on 18th-ranked Pennsylvania in Philly.

"BU is going to be a big game," Colligan said. "Princeton beat them 3-1 [in Boston]-it will be very interesting to see how we do." Harvard  2 Cornell  0