The varsity soccer team played its best game of the season yesterday, but that wasn't good enough to beat the national champion University of Connecticut squad. The Blue and White nipped the Crimson, 1 to 0, at Storrn, Conn., on a second-period penalty shot.

Both teams played almost an even game the entire way, but late in the first half a ball touched the hands of fullback Mike Scully. Connecticut kicked in the resulting direct penalty shot at 2:10 of the second quarter.

For the rest of the game, the varsity continued to match play with Connecticut. It turned on a final spurt so hot that Connecticut never got the ball out of its own zone in the last three minutes of play. Yet the blue and White--whose first team listed ten seniors--was so good that the Connecticut goalie was seldom overworked.

Most of the Crimson players individually played their top games so far of the season against the champions. Goalie Whoop Batachelder was busy all afternoon blocking difficult Connecticut shots. The penalty kick that got by him was hardly his fault; in soccer the goalie is almost defenseless against a direct penalty kick.

Other noticeably good games were played by forwards Jon Spivak and Ben Goldstein, as well as by fullbacks Rick Drake and Scully. But after the game Coach Bruce Munro gave credit to the whole team for its performance.

A crowd of 2000--the biggest crowd the Crimson has played to this season--watched the game.

The Crimson lineup: Batchelder, g; Scully, lhb; Drake, rfb; Harrop, lhb; Panteleonl, chb; Miller, rhb; Johnson, ol; Welss, il; Wolf, cf; Spivak, Ir; Goldstein, or.