Momentum may be hard to explain, but it is easy to recognize.

On Saturday the momentum swung back and forth several times between two evenly matched women's soccer teams and ended up on the side of Princeton. For Harvard the 4-3 overtime loss on the Business School field was a heartbreaker. Down and out, the Crimson came back and almost outdueled the Tigers in an exciting and physical match.

The loss to its chief Ivy rival dealt a severe blow to the Crimson's title hopes, dropping its record to 2-1 in the league. The squad still has to travel to Providence to take on a tough Brown team next Saturday.

The Tigers came out strong, and took an early lead. Ten minutes into the contest Angle Vorhies scored on a feed from Lynette PreScott. Twenty minutes later the Vorhies-Prescott combination struck again to give Princeton a 2-0 halftime advantage.

The second half belonged to Harvard. With new energy the Crimson assumed control of the game. Less than three minutes into the half junior striker Kelly Landry, the team's leading scorer, struck back. She drove a low shot at the Princeton net which the goal-keeper slowed. However, the netminder couldn't catch the ball, and it continued rolling very slowly past her towards the Tiger not. A Princeton fullback, trying to save the goal, punched the ball home.

The Comeback Kid

The goal gave Landry her eighth score of the season and extended her goal-scoring streak to six games. She was a powerful offensive threat all game and, despite attracting one-on-one coverage throughout the contest, she managed to launch eight shots on goal during regulation.

In the later half of the second period the Crimson held a counterattacking clinic. It demonstrated a great variety of ways to bring the ball up field and set up good goal scoring opportunities. Its shots, however, did not hit home. With just under 10 minutes left, Landry missed an open net by shooting just over the crossbar from about twenty feet out.

Three minutes later the Crimson attack redeemed itself. Inga Larson, team captain and second-leading scorer, moved on the offensive. Earlier she had been playing back, helping shore up a defense which was playing without its injured sweeper, Debbie Field. Larson drove the ball into the upper right-hand corner of the Tiger net to knot the game with 5:15 left.

The first part of the first of two 10 minute overtimes belonged to the Crimson. Six minutes in, Kelly Landry broke into the Princeton box, freezing the goalie. She then fed freshman Electa Sevier for the goal. "We tried to dig out and did a great job," said Coach Bob Salise. "We had the spunk and pizzaz to get the equalizer and the go-ahead.

Underage Drivers

Then sometime changed. The Crimson mysteriously abandoned the aggressive style that had produced three unanswered goals and it cautiously waited out the rest of the first overtime. "We lacked composure when we got ahead. We were in the driver's seat and we panicked. This is still a young team," added Scalise.

"The first goal in overtime was a blessing in disguise," said Princeton Coach Bob Malekoff. "It relaxed everybody and took the pressure off."

Taking advantage of the Harvard malaise, buoyed by the arrival of jubilant Princeton fans fresh from the men's soccer game, the Tigers struck back. At 6:24 Vorhies completed the hat trick and tied the game off a corner kick and less than three minutes later the Tigers notched the game-winner off a free kick by Kerry Shaw. "I saw the corner open and it worked." Shaw said after the game. "I thought we played well We had some injuries in key places and then we sucked it up and got lucky."

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard has a chance to regain some confidence before the Brown game when it plays UMass on Tuesday afternoon at the B-School field.