No. 18 Field Hockey Upsets No. 13 B.C.

Not even a torrential downpour could dampen the spirits of the No. 18 Harvard field hockey team in its battle for local supremacy against No. 13 Boston College at Alumni Stadium last night.

Co-captain Maisa Badawy's goal with 12 minutes left in regulation ended a soggy stalemate and propelled

Harvard (9-3, 4-0 Ivy) to a 2-0 victory over the Eagles (9-6).

Having won four games in a row and two wins in as many weeks against Top 20 teams, Harvard is at a season-high level of confidence going into Saturday afternoon's showdown at six-time defending Ivy champion Princeton (7-3, 4-0 Ivy).

"There's no huge gap between us and the top teams anymore," Badawy said. "Look, we just beat the No. 13 team in the country. Every time we step onto the field, we can win the game."

On the game-winning goal, Badawy, stuck in traffic on the left side of the field, maneuvered around the circle in search of open space. Finding a clear trajectory to the net from the top of the circle, she fired the ball into the right corner of the goal.

"I'm a left side player, and I usually try to penetrate the left, but it was all congested, so I just pulled it around to the top of the circle," Badawy said.

The Crimson's second goal came in the game's final 30 seconds on a direct hit off a penalty corner taken by junior forward Jane Park. The ball was initially stopped, but somehow it managed to find its way into the net.

"It was tough--the type of game where we didn't have a lot of opportunities but we certainly capitalized when we had them," Coach Sue Caples said. "Sometimes the games are like that."

Harvard kept B.C. out of scoring range for the vast majority of the night. The closest the Eagles came to scoring was on its third penalty corner of the second half, immediately after Harvard took the lead. B.C. peppered freshman keeper Katie Zacarian with three shots while she lay sprawled across the goal. Then the referee's whistle blew, ending the threat.

The Crimson's superb ball control left B.C. helpless to score in the game's final minutes. Freshman forward Kate McDavitt managed to clear the ball out of the Harvard zone to sophomore forward Philomena Gambale, who maneuvered back and forth along the left sideline deep in the B.C. end.

For the next three minutes, Harvard ran down the clock by wasting time in the left corner, while B.C. knocked the ball out of bounds four times, before finally conceding the penalty corner that led to Park's goal, her second in as many games.

"We moved well, we had some good overlap and we created good opportunities," Caples said. "We did the little things that counted."

McDavitt had game's first significant scoring opportunity on a wild run to the net 12 minutes into the second half. At midfield, she stole the ball from a pair of Eagle defenders and broke to the goal with nothing but waterlogged turf ahead of her.

As she came near the goaltender, one of the defenders managed to catch McDavitt, and she ran out of space.

Both she and the ball rolled into the keeper, and B.C. was given possession on the restart.

In the game's first half, neither team accomplished much offensively. The heavy rain was definitely a factor.

"It only started to rain harder as the game went on," Caples said. "Obviously the field was wet. There was too much water. So play wasn't quite as fast."

The rain made loose balls available to those who were willing to earn them.

"It's fun," Badawy said. "Every ball could go either way. The balls are a little less predictable. You've just got to play hard."

The Crimson will need to play its hardest in order to beat No. 7 Princeton. The Tigers have posted a 42-1 record in the Ivy League since 1994.

"It's going to be a great matchup," Caples said. "With two great goaltenders and great scorers, we're two well balanced teams."

Last season, Harvard came close to beating Princeton for the first time in recent history. A pair of goals by Kalen Ingram '03 put the Crimson up 2-1 late in the second half, but the Tigers came back and won it, 3-2, in overtime.

"Last year we were the better team, we just didn't finish," Caples said.

A win over the Tigers would mean a great deal for the seniors, who have watched the Harvard field hockey program grow into a national contender.

"The turf has erased the gap between us and the top teams," said Badawy in reference to Jordan Field, the two-year old home of Harvard field hockey. "There is no gap. They [the Tigers] don't know what's coming."

The game will begin at 1:00 on Saturday at Princeton.

"We've worked hard to keep ourselves in contention for the Ivy championship, and we've kept destiny in our own hands," Caples said. "We just need to be ready to play."