Field Hockey Loses Second Straight 2-1

NEWTON, Mass.--Fortunately for the Harvard field hockey team, its opponents' jerseys yesterday read "B.C.", not "Princeton."

Last night at Alumni Stadium, the Crimson fell to the Eagles, 2-1, for Harvard's second loss in a row and third straight less-than-perfect game. And with Princeton coming up on Saturday, Harvard (7-5,3-0 Ivy) knows that it will have to change.

The Crimson doesn't pretend that the Tigers aren't the focus of the season. Princeton is the only other undefeated team in the Ivy League, and the winner of their game will most likely win the league title.

However, Harvard's last two losses--to Providence on Saturday and B.C.--show that the team is going to have to do something between now and then.

"We need to regroup as a team," co-captain Daphne Clark said. "When we were winning we were winning as a team, and everyone has to want to win."

Harvard certainly was not playing as a team last night. The attacks weren't running smoothly--the Crimson only had seven shots and six penalty corners, compared to 18 and 11 for the Eagles, respectively. The free hits were not executed properly, and in Harvard's six corners the Clark-to-sophomore Tara LaSovage battery never got going.

Boston College, however, netted its third corner of the night. Eagles Joy Ramsbotham, the main corner hitter, flipped a pass to teammate Andrea Durko, who hummed a shot into the cage about 14 minutes into the game.

Meanwhile, Harvard was having semi-success on offense. The Crimson was able to bring the ball up the field with some consistency, but few of its shots were on net.

"We had good pass combinations, but we didn't finish," Harvard coach Sue Caples said. "We have to definitely test the goalie."

B.C., on the other hand, did that well. Freshman goalie Anya Cowan had to make 14 saves on the night and was kept moving around the cage.

The Eagles' second goal was a good instance of that. Ten minutes into the second half, Ramsbotham threw a rebound right back into the cage, giving B.C. a 2-0 advantage.

Another B.C. attack that worked well was from Michelle Labonage, a quick left-side forward. Often times she found holes on the left--not usually the primary side for an offense--and raced upwards, lightly tapping the ball along the astroturf with her stick in her left hand.

"We let them carry the ball too much," Caples said. "They had too many runs up the midfield."

Harvard's lone tally came with 17 minutes left in the game, when Clark slipped a free hit past the defense to sophomore Judy Collins, the team's leading scorer. Collins broke towards the left post and slapped a shot past the goaltender, making the score 2-1.

However, the Crimson had few attacks the rest of the game, save one penalty corner. Harvard  1 B.C.  2