Scott Pushes Field Hockey Past Providence

The No. 13 Harvard field hockey team used an old trick, albeit one that had never been successful, to come out of Providence (6-14) with a 2-0 win.

One of the Crimson's often-used plays on the penalty corner is to option off to sophomore back Katie Scott.

Luckily for the Crimson, the play finally worked at just the right time--it broke Harvard (10-4, 4-1 Ivy) out of string of 133 minutes of scoreless hockey.

Scott, taking a pass from the top of the circle off the stick of senior midfielder Liz Sarles, stick-handled outside of the net and pushed the ball past Providence keeper Heather Tattersall.

It was Scott's second goal of the season. She had proven herself to be an accurate shooter when she nailed a crucial penalty stroke earlier this season against Yale.

The goal by Scott finally gave Harvard the advantage on the scoreboard in a game it should easily have won.

"We dominated this game," freshman forward Kate McDavitt said. "We had a number of opportunities which we definitely should have scored on. We should have had some more goals before then."

Three minutes after the initial goal, McDavitt helped to ice the game for Harvard. On the strength of one of her typical speedy rushes to the net, she found herself one-on-one with Tattersall.

McDavitt's initial shot deflected off of Tattersall's pads, but senior forward Kate Nagle was there to drive in the insurance goal--her seventh of the season.

Freshman keeper Katie Zacarian had another solid day in goal, stopping eight shots, always making up for any of Harvard's defensive miscues.

It was Zacarian's sixth shutout of the season and her fourth in five games for the Crimson.

The win over Providence was huge for the Crimson's NCAA Tournament chances. Harvard will likely be fighting for an at-large berth in the 16-team tourney, since Princeton (10-3, 5-0) is unlikely to lose hold of its one-game lead in the Ivy standings.

"We know we still have a chance at winning the Ivy title," McDavitt said. "But we're focussed on just winning the rest of our games. That'll get us into the tournament. We're 13th in the country right now."

Although the Friars have recorded just six wins all year, three of those six wins were against teams that are in contention with Harvard for at-large berths.

Providence had beaten No. 18 Syracuse, New Hampshire and Holy Cross in recent weeks.

New Hampshire (11-6) is in contention, having beaten the Crimson earlier in the season and No. 15 Boston College on Tuesday.

Holy Cross is the frontrunner in the Patriot League, which does not receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, yet still earned a representative in Lafayette last season.

Now that Harvard has passed by Providence, it must deal with Dartmouth and No. 17 Boston University this weekend.

The battle with Dartmouth on Saturday will have major revenge motives for the Crimson, as the Big Green beat Harvard in the regular season and in the ECAC Championship.

Sunday's game at B.U. will have a postseason atmosphere as there is slim chance that both local teams will make this year's tournament.

Last Saturday's loss to Princeton greatly minimized the Crimson's margin for error and left the team with four games left to win. So far, the status is one down, three to go.