One question nags the Harvard field hockey team as it prepares to battle Princeton today at 11 a.m. at Soldier's Field:
Can it win with an offense that has averaged less than one goal per game this season?
The Crimson (3-6-1 overall, 2-1 Ivy) must win its battle with the Tigers to keep within a half-game of league-leading Penn (3-0-1 Ivy) which appears headed for its third Ancient Eight title.
The stickwomen dropped a 1-0 decision to the Quakers earlier in the year and will not get another crack at Penn unless the two squads tie for first.
But Harvard could win the crown outright if it wins all three of its remaining Ivy games and Penn loses once.
"We definitely have a shot at the Ivy title," Crimson Coach Nita Lamborghini says.
But how good a shot?
A large part of that question should be answered by early this afternoon when Harvard's game against the Tigers (7-4-1 overall, 1-2-1 Ivy) is in the history books.
The Crimson offense will probably have to score more than once on Princeton goalie Angela Tucci to come out on top. Because while Tucci's play this year has been outstanding--she has stopped 102 shots while allowing only eight goals--Princeton is predominately an offensive power that scores early and often.
The Tigers--coming off a 5-0 rout of C.W. Post and a 4-0 drubbing of Yale--are led by Co-Captain Sue McCarter (two goals, eight assists) and forward Sue Gouchoe (five goals, three assists) who will give the sterling Crimson defense a run for its money.
But if anyone is prepared to meet the Tiger challenge, it is Harvard's defense.
Led by goalie Denise Katsias and defender Anne Kelly, the Crimson has given up only 15 goals in a season in which it has played six of the top 20 teams in the country.
"We play a very competitive schedule," Lamborghini says. "And the good thing about it is that it makes us better."
It certainly has made the defense better.
In its last two games, the Crimson defense turned back 32 shots and 21 penalty corners while allowing only one goal.
Katsias has three shutouts on the year and nearly recorded another in the Crimson's last game, a 1-0 loss to seventh-ranked New Hampshire. At week's end, she was the top-rated goalie in the Ivy League.
Katsias and her defensive cohorts--Kelly, Bambi Taylor, Kristen Fallon, Sharon Kosakowski and Leelee Groome--have repeatedly frustrated opponents' drives with shoestring steals and long clearing passes.
But the Crimson's chances at Ivy glory really rest with the offense which has tallied only seven goals on the year.
Wings Cindi Ersek and Gia Barresi and forwards Kate Felsen and Linda Runyon must put together the kind of cohesive attack that lifted the Crimson over Dartmouth, 2-0, last Saturday.
A special burden seems to rest with Ersek who is emerging as a star on a team of solid but unspectacular players.
"She [Ersek] is not only improving," Lamborghini says. "She's getting very good."
Ersek's breakaways against New Hampshire were the only offensive threats the Crimson mounted in the game.
Her goal against Dartmouth--a tip-in of a Felsen blast at 27:21 of the first half--gave the Crimson an early edge, the only first-half advantage it has enjoyed this season.
The lesson of the Dartmouth victory is simple--score early and let the defense do the rest.
More than anything, the Princeton contest will test whether Harvard's second-place standing in the Ivy League is a testament to the spirit and savvy of its young team or a mere fluke.
The defense has already shown its mettle.
The burden of proof lies with the offense.
THE NOTEBOOK: For their efforts in the victory over Dartmouth, Ersek and Katsias were named Honorable Mention Ivy League Players of the Week... Harvard's all-time record against Princeton is 1-5.
Read more in News
University Reviewing HMC's Ties to Harvard
