Field Hockey Weathers an Up and Down Weekend

HANOVER, N.H.--The No. 13 Harvard field hockey team split its pair of games this weekend, defeating Ivy rival Dartmouth 3-1 on Saturday and then falling to No. 17 Boston University 4-1 at Nickerson Field in yesterday's unforgiving weather.

The win over Dartmouth was huge for the Crimson (11-5, 5-1 Ivy). Not only did it avenge a pair of losses to the Big Green (7-7, 3-3) last season, it essentially guaranteed Harvard no worse than a second-place finish in the Ivy League. Now with a win against Columbia, the Crimson would have its first ever six-win Ivy season.

A day later, Harvard missed out on a golden opportunity to cement its NCAA Tournament at-large status with its loss to Boston University (13-7).

The loss by no means ended Harvard's NCAA hopes, but it certainly means that the Crimson will have to sweat out the selection decisions.

Harvard 3, Dartmouth 1

Just as in Wednesday's game against Providence, a perfectly executed penalty corner from sophomore back Katie Scott broke the game open for the Crimson.

Everyone involved in the corner play was crucial to its success.

Junior back Katie Turck pushed the ball smoothly and forcefully to the top of the circle, where it was firmly stopped by co-captain Maisa Badawy. On the approach, co-captain Liz Sarles made the entire Dartmouth flinch as if to block a direct shot--the set that Harvard had executed on its first two corners of the day.

The deceptive motion by Sarles plus the quickness of her leftward pass gave Scott just enough time to fire a promising shot to the left corner of the goal. Big Green keeper Brittany D'Augustine, who had been in position for a shot to the right, suddenly dove left in desperation to stop the low shot by Scott. But Scott had flicked the ball with just enough force and just enough height that it deflected up off the top of D'Augustine's outstretched stick and into the net.

"That's the way that play was meant to be executed," Coach Sue Caples. "It didn't look as pretty when we ran it on grass against Providence."

The play to Scott has suddenly become the Crimson's most effective on the penalty corner. Before Wednesday, the option had never worked.

"We've improved with a lot of repetitions," Caples said. "We've started to connect. We're smoothing the pass out and figuring out the proper timing between the stop and the hit."

The Crimson did not hesitate to cash in on Dartmouth's shock after giving up the initial goal. Before the Big Green announcers even finished announcing Scott's goal to the crowd, senior forward Kate Nagle and sophomore forward Philomena Gambale had already teamed up for goal number two.

The Big Green defenders learned first-hand that Gambale is a scoring threat whenever she controls the ball with open space to work with, however narrow. She appeared to be outnumbered as she rushed towards the circle and was met by three Dartmouth defenders. But Gambale merely darted in between them and around them while maintaining complete control of herself.

And just when she looked as if she had lost control of the ball, she found a way to cross the ball in front of the mouth of the net, where Kate Nagle deflected it in for her team-leading eighth goal of the season.

Gambale is the Crimson's No. 2 scorer on the season, despite having started only one game all year. Caples' strategy of holding her back then letting her loose has produced big results.

"Philomena is great coming off the bench," Caples said. "She's a spark. She is lightning quick, and it's hard for defenses to stop her. She's great in that role. She changes the pace of the game."

Dartmouth, faced with the daunting task of coming back from a 2-0 deficit, fought madly for the rest of the game.

The Big Green put intense pressure on the Harvard net at the end of the first half, and then in the opening minutes of the second half, Dartmouth had a chance on its third penalty corner of the day, but freshman keeper Katie Zacarian made a great save in which she dove down for the stop, hid the ball momentarily, and then swept it out.

The Dartmouth lineup, which features Carolyn Steele from Dartmouth's top-ranked ice hockey team, had the strength to clear the ball long distances and take powerful set shots. The Big Green attack had looked dangerous right from the opening five minutes, in which it earned a pair of penalty corners.

"Dartmouth is well-skilled and tough physically," Caples said. "We just stuck to our plan, maintained good possession and numbers in the midfield allowed us to create our attack."

Even with the two-goal lead, Harvard was still aggressive offensively. Freshman forward Kate McDavitt created a solid scoring chance 10 minutes into the second half by maneuvering around the circle, and passing off to Nagle. Three Crimson players had a chance at the rebound after Nagle's shot was stopped, but the opportunity went for naught.

Soon after Nagle had another chance when she took a pass while rushing towards the net side-by-side with Mina Pell, but D'Augustine made the stop. In the following minutes, Pell had a one-on-one chance with D'Augustine coming way out of the net, but Pell could not get around her.

Dartmouth's aggressiveness was evident in the final 10 minutes, as the Big Green barely missed on a number of scoring chances, and dove at every loose ball that was just out of reach.

Right after the scoreboard clock ticked under five minutes, Dartmouth finally got on the board though its sixth and final penalty corner of the day. On the play, forward Lisa Thomas passed left to Steele, who slapped the ball just inside the left post.

"We had some lapses, but they were really hanging with us," Caples said.

Although Dartmouth had cut the deficit in half, the Crimson rendered the comeback impossible by going on the attack for the rest of the game. Harvard earned two more penalty corners in the final minutes for a total of nine on the day.

On the last one, Sarles hit the ball through a crowd of people in front for her first goal of the season. Her goal put the Crimson up 3-1 and iced the victory.

"We played our most complete game of the season today," Caples said.

Boston University 4, Harvard 1

Yesterday, on a cold afternoon punctuated by brief snow flurries, Harvard was unable to weather the flurry of Boston University's first-half offense at Nickerson Field.

The Terrier offense came out fast and furious, capitalizing on indirect corners to score the game's first two goals. At the beginning of the second half, the Terriers added another goal to improve their lead to 3-0.

The Crimson finally made its mark on the scoreboard a minute and a half later, when Nagle scored what would be the Crimson's only goal of the game. The goal, one of the few bright spots on the day for Harvard, was Nagle's ninth of the season and third goal in as many games.

The game's final goal was scored by B.U. with 17:27 remaining, icing the game and bringing the team's weekend to a disappointing end.

With the loss to B.U., the NCAA Tournament picture for the Crimson looks murky. There are approximately 12 teams that whose berths appear to be secure, while there is a mass of eight or so teams, including Harvard, B.U., B.C. and New Hampshire fighting for the last four spots.

Each of the teams in this grouping has successfully beaten up on each other, but has failed to beat any of the nation's marquee programs.

The selection of the teams to the tournament will likely be completely arbitrary and unpredictable. Harvard will hope that the selection committee will be impressed by a solid second-place Ivy finish and that its competitors will falter in their respective conference tournaments. If not, the Crimson will likely end up in ECAC Tournament for the third straight season.

Of course, if Harvard is to have any hope at a NCAA Tournament berth at all, it must beat Columbia, who suddenly has a competitive team this year. The game is at noon at Jordan Field on Saturday.