Field Hockey Battles to Tough Win at Springfield

At dinner tables across America, parents tell their children to finish their dinner or to not expect any dessert.

Who would have ever thought that this would be analogous to the Harvard field hockey team?

With its 2-1 come from behind win over host Springfield Wednesday night, the Crimson finished a game strong for the first time in its last four tries. And victory certainly tastes sweet.

After Springfield scored the first goal of the game within the first 10 minutes of play, Harvard (0-0 Ivy, 2-3 overall) could have come mentally unglued, as it did earlier this season.

But no, The Crimson swallowed their proverbial mouth fulls of zucchini and battled back to win.

"We started back on our heels," junior goaltender Jessica Milhollin said. "After they scored we realized that we weren't going to win without trying."

And that was that. Springfield never really got its offense on track for the rest of the game, as shown by the fact that Milhollin only had to make four saves.

It was then only a matter of time--about 20 minutes--until Harvard did get the ball between the posts.

As the first half was winding down, a long corner shot came crossing through the goal front. Freshman attacker Jessica Bowdoin was in the right place at the right time and deflected in her team-leading third goal of the season.

Bowdoin, by the way, has scored all of her goals in Harvard's two victories.

Nevertheless, the halftime whistle blew soon after Bowdoin's shot, and while a break from the action will often take momentum away from a team, it only got the Crimson more psyched.

"We're just tired of losing," Milhollin said. "We really wanted to win."

And so, midway through the second half, the inevitable came. Off another corner shot, sophomore midfielder Daphne Clark received a pass and whacked it past the Springfield netminder for the 2-1 lead.

But the Crimson still had to hold on to the lead--something that the team has recently had trouble with. In its game against Providence on Saturday, a 1-0 lead turned into a 3-1 loss.

Thankfully for Harvard, there was no instant replay today, as the scoreboard lights didn't change again.

The victory ended the team's three-game slide, and removed a little monkey off its back.

"[The game] went really well," junior forward Melanie Allen said. "I felt like we played hard for 70 minutes, with no letdowns, and we're ready to play Cornell on Saturday."

Speaking of which, the Big Red machine will be rolling on in to Cambridge this weekend in what will be Harvard's first Ivy League game this season.

Cornell, as much as anyone the "gut" of the Ivy League field hockey scene, shouldn't pose much of a challenge. Don't try telling that to the Harvard, though.

"We can't overlook them as we did Providence," Allen said.

It seems that the Crimson has learned its lesson for the season: play hard all the time, or don't expect to win.

Which, as everyone on the team hopes will soon sink in, is a pretty good realization to come to right before the Ivy League schedule kicks into high gear.