It took Andy Mainelli all of one practice four years ago to make up her mind about Ellen O'Neill

"We were getting ready for a two-mile run." Mainelli recalls of the first tali practice of 1981. "There was this one girl stretching and jumping up and down. Then she went out and just blew everyone away.

"I found out it was Ellen," Mainelli jokes, and "I knew I didn't like her already."

. . . . .

What began for Andy Mainelli and Ellen O'Neill with that two mile time trial four years ago comes to a close today with one final run for a victory.

The senior co-captains of the Harvard field hockey team, Mainelli and O'Neill this afternoon will finish up a pair of careers that rank among the most distinguished in Crimson field hockey history.

But they'll also close out careers that began amidst a heap of hopes and that have ended amidst a bevy of broken dreams.

Considered by many one of the finest teams in Harvard field hockey history, the Crimson has tumbled to 5-9 overall and to next to last place in the Ivy League this season. Only Yale at 2:30 p.m. today on Soliders Field remains on the 1984 schedule.

Nothing else sets Mainelli and O'Neill apart from other equally talented captains of the past more than the fact that they've headed one of the most disappointing teams in the club's 12-year history.

And that hurts no one more than the two very' stint captains.

Who, by the way, have been the best of friends ever since that fall day of 1981 and roommates ever since the fall of 1982.

. . . . .

The fall of 1982 was also the season both Mainelli and O'Neill burst on to the scene as stickwomen to be taken seriously.

O'Neill had started all but one game the year before, and Mainelli had seen spot duty, but it was their sophomore campaign of 1982 that saw them both develop into first-rate players.

After a preseason with the rest of the squad in Ireland, the Winthrop House residents blossomed, and became integral parts of an 11-2-3 Harvard club that finished just one and a half games behind Ivy League champion Princeton and that finally put Cambridge on the field hockey map.