Today's hotly contested soccer battle between the fourth and fifth ranked teams in the nation was spiced earlier this week with a feud over the type of playing surface available at Cornell.

The Big Red have traditionally played on Upper Alumni Field, a grass playing area, and the Crimson prepared to meet the Big Red under those conditions.

Because of the recent national attention focused on the Cornell soccer team, however, athletic officials in Ithaca have scheduled all of this fall's home matches for the polyturf field in Schoellkopf Stadium. The Stadium seats 34,000 and facilitates television and radio coverage and the charging of admission.

Unfortunately, Cornell did not notify Harvard of the change in scheduling until late this week. Ususlly the home team has the power to reschedule the site of a match. But since moving the game inside the stadium also involved changing the time of the morning match, Harvard's approval was required.

The Crimson refused Thursday, and the game will most likely be played at Alumni Field today.

Harvard's reaction to Cornell's request reflects more than obstinence.

An artificial playing surface greatly affects the passing combinations of a soccer team and throws off the speed of the game.

The only matches Harvard plays on artificial surfaces are at Penn and Boston University. Preceeding a trip to Penn, the varsity usually spends several practice sessions on the B.U. field to gain a feeling of the change in play. Even Dartmouth frequently sends its squads to practice at B.U. before away matches at Penn.

"We would have been glad to play on the artificial surface if we had known in advance," coach Bruce Munro said. But what was largely a bureaucratic oversight could add an emotional factor to today's contest.