What a difference two weeks make A fortnight ago the Harvard women's soccer team returned from Brunswick. Maine with a losing record and a scoring slump that seemed to suffocate the entire team.
On Saturday, 14 days later, the Crimson flew back from Philadelphia with a 3-1-1 record after a 100 Massacre of Penn. The win was the squad's second straight game in which it scored double digits, the first was a 10-0 defeat of B.U on Wednesday and it put the Crimson's season scoring total at 27 goals.
The change came suddenly in its first two games the Harvard offence scored just two goals, one of them on a penalty her. But with special attention given to finishing off plays in practice and most important time to work together as a team, the Crimson offense shifted from first to fifth gear a week ago.
Booters Explode
Last Saturday, the booters' offense exploded for five goals against Vermont while goalkeeper Janet Judge recorded her first shutout. Then came the Terrier slaughter and finally Saturday's win.
However, the Crimson has yet to put its newfound offense to the test, B.U., Penn., and Harvard's next two competitors--Smith and Cornell--are not top-notch teams. It won't be until October 12, when the booters play B.C., that they will face some real competition.
"Right now we're working on our overall play," tri-captain Kelly Gately said. "It's hard to know how far we've progressed, so we're trying to do things well against these teams that we're going to have to do against B.C."
Harvard certainly did things well against Penn. The Quakers a first year varsity team didn't have a prayer Penn tried to compensate for the discrepancy in talent with overly physical defense, consistently double teaming the ball and often tacking unnecessarily.
It didn't take long for Harvard to solve the Penn defense with less than 10 minutes gone in the contest. In-captain Laura Mayer took a pass across the goal from freshman Brigitte Duffy and blasted the ball by Penn goalie Laura Bloom.
As is Wednesday's match, everyone seemed to get a piece of the action Sophomore Kelly Landry had an outstanding after noon, scoring a hat trick, as well as assisting with another three tallies Inga Larson had two goals while freshman Kathy Cox scored her second of the season Debbie Field. Kelly Gately, and Jenny Greeley also notched goals.
THE NOTEBOOK This was the first time the squad has traveled to Philadelphia to play Penn since it stopped meeting the Quakers in and Ivy tournament. No one can say the team doesn't travel first class--the botters flew to Philadelphia rather than suffer through the long bus ride Of course they had to be up at 5:30 a.m. Quite a number of Crimson fans were on hand for the game including the Greeleys, who off traveled from Wellesley the Judges from Long Island and Laura Mayer's mom, up all the way from Atlanta Georgia.
Read more in News
Officials Term Protest Impressive, But Call Criticism of Bok Unfair