Perfection

God is a fan of Harvard field hockey.

It must be true--nothing else makes sense. Yesterday's win over New Hampshire was too perfect for a mere mortal to conceive of.

For those who need a quick field hockey recap, here it goes: Harvard opens the season with a good, young team. Starts slow, has some good games going into Ivy League season. But all of a sudden, can't score; comes into yesterday's game 0-3 in the Ivies and without a goal since shopping period.

Don't you see? It was all a setup for yesterday's UNH game, when Harvard flew out of the hole with a 3-1 victory and put its offense back in gear.

I know, it sounds like some bad movie, but those smiles on the Crimson sideline weren't faked. Jeremiah may have been a bullfrog, but there was certainly some joy to the Harvard field hockey world.

And if Harvard coach Sue Caples was the ruler of the world, how could she have hoped for anything better? The Crimson came into the game as a team with talent, but with certain problems that kept holding it back. All were answered.

The first problem was one of scoring early. Before yesterday, the Crimson's last win--a 3-2 job over Providence--featured one late first-half goal and two second-half scores. That's not the ideal way to do things--a good team will burst out of the gate with a quick goal to set the stage.

In fact, Harvard scored in the first 10 minutes in only one of its other games, a 3-1 win over Vermont.

So what does the Crimson do against UNH? Junior Daphne Clark knocks home her fifth goal of the season less than four minutes into the game. That fixes that.

Okay, next problem. After an opponent's score, the Crimson has a tendency to lose a step, for whatever psychological reason. For instance, when Penn knocked home a goal midway through the second half of Saturday's game. Harvard never really recovered and went on to lose, 1-0.

Again, fast-forward to UNH. The Wildcats answer Clark's goal with one of their own about 70 seconds later--yes, allowing a foe to retie a game does seem dangerous, but there is a greater good here. The Crimson controlled the rest of the first half and practically all of the second. In other words, momentum never left Harvard's bench.

However, the Crimson didn't score in the remainder of the first half, which brings us to our third and most important problem: capitalizing on offensive chances. In the four-game shutout streak, Harvard certainly had opportunities to score, but failed to convert on any. And the latter part of yesterday's first half was the same, with the Crimson dominating the game but not scoring.

Hey, a little pressure is good, no? Looking at the main cause of its four-game losing streak right between the eyes, Harvard overcame.

The dice were loaded when UNH began the second half with a couple of good attacks, but then freshman Judy Collins streaked down the middle of the field past the defense. The Wildcat goaltender came out of the net to stop the initial shot, but Collins lifted the rebound over the sprawled cageminder and into the promised land.

With the 2-1 lead, Harvard took the initiative. Its players ran faster, passed cleaner and took over the game.

Now all this cake needed was icing, and junior Courtenay Benedict provided that when she nicked a loose ball in front of the cage between the goalie's legs.

Oh, and there were other Crimson demons exorcised yesterday--such as an inability to score on plays other than corners, a defense that gives up too many shots and a tendency to give up easy goals late. But I think you get the general picture.

In fact, there was only one bad thing about the win for Harvard. It didn't happen two weeks ago.