Spending a cold rainy afternoon in Providence is no one's idea of a good time--especially so for the women's field hockey team, which suffered through a particularly dismal afternoon yesterday, losing to Providence College 3-1.

The Harvard stickwomen simply could not put the ball in the net despite playing their most aggressive game to date as they outshot the Lady Friars 12-10 and controlled the ball for most of the contest.

Playing without ailing captain Sara LeBlond and injured Laura diBonaventura. Harvard took control for the first 15 minutes of play, not letting the ball across the fifty-yard line. Right wing Andrea Mainelli set up many scoring opportunities which Harvard could not capitalize on.

Scoring was not as difficult for the Lady Friars as they tallied on their first trip to the Harvard end. With a blur of Crimson and white surrounding the goal, the Providence center flicked the ball into the upper left-hand corner giving goalie Juliet Lamont no chance at a save.

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Providence came right back for more but Lamont made some exceptional saves, eventually trapping the ball between her feet. The officials called her for covering the ball and awarded the Friars a penalty stroke, but a diving save kept the Crimson within one at the half.

The second half opened much as the first, with Harvard dominating all aspects of play except scoring.

With 16 minutes gone in the half captain Maureen Finn had to leave after being hit in the face with a stick.

Things went from bad to worse when Providence scored twice less than a minute after Finn's departure.

The Crimson finally scored when forward Kate Martin evaded the Friar defense and put the ball by the Providence netkeeper to put the final tally at 3-1.