They say you can't win if you don't score.

And if you don't believe it, just ask the Harvard field hockey team.

The stickwomen have dropped three consecutive shutouts, most recently a 2-0 drubbing at the hands of Boston University yesterday at Soldier's Field.

But the lack of anything but a goose egg on the Harvard side of the scoreboard remains a mystery to Coach Edie Mabrey. "I just don't know. You tell me [why we're not scoring]," she said afterwards.

Well, Coach, for starters there are the injuries. Superstar Bambi Taylor was sidelined Wednesday with a sprained ankle, and forward Gia Barressi is also among the walking wounded.

"We've been forced to use a lot of new players," Mabrey explained. Co-Captain Ellen O'Neill, who is the core of what she called a "drastically changed" Crimson defense, added, "There's been no continuity from one game to the next."

But in the past three games, one thing has remained consistent: rival goalies chalking up shutouts against the non-scoring Cantabs.

A year ago, the Crimson was in a similar early-season scoreless mode, but bounced back to finish 8-6-1.

Yesterday's contest started out looking promising, especially when Harvard's Alicia Clifton came within a dog's breadth of scoring a go-ahead goal against the Terriers just seven minutes into the game.

B.U. and Harvard traded volleys during the midsection of the first half, with neither team executing any dangerous attacks.

That is, until Terrier Laura Eliseo, with about 12 minutes remaining in the half, took a hard shot off a penalty corner that Crimson goalie Kristen Abely turned away.

The rebound, however, landed on the stick of the Terriers' Diane Weinberg, who promptly fired the ball deep into the Harvard goal.

And just four minutes later. Weinberg repeated, taking a rebound that Abely had kicked out in front and turning it into an unnecessary B.U. insurance tally.

The rest of the game was the same old story for the Crimson. Harvard, led by the play of forward Andy Mainelli, put some intense pressure on the Terrier zone, but failed to convert it into anything on the scoreboard.

"The follow-up just isn't there," said Co-Captain Mainelli, the team's leading scorer. O'Neill concurred. "We're breaking down in the circle," she said.