You can count the number of wins the Harvard field hockey team chalked up this year on one hand--without using your thumb or even your pinkie.

It takes two full hands to count the number of goals the stickwomen scored.

And only an octopus or a statistics major--or maybe both in a joint research effort--could calculate the number of saves Harvard netminder Denise Katsias recorded.

Which shows just what kind of team the Crimson had:

A defensive team. That didn't score much. And didn't win much.

But Harvard was one of the most impressive 3-8-4 squads (with only 10 goals all season) around.

After all, five of its losses came to nationally ranked teams and one of its ties was with 6th-ranked Boston College.

The Crimson even beat Springfield, then ranked 12th, 1-0; all this with a starting lineup that included five sophomores and a freshman goalie.

With a 1-1 deadlock at Yale November 9, Harvard wound up with a 2-2-2 Ivy record, good enough for second place in the league.

This was a marked improvement over last year's 1-5 ledger that pushed the Crimson into the Ivy cellar for the first time in its history.

And it's probably a good bet that this young Crimson squad--although it will lose senior starters Linda Runyon, Bambi Taylor, Anne Kelly and Alicia Clifton--will be in the thick of the Ivy race next year.

"We have high expectations for next season," sophomore midfielder Leelee Groome says.

Katsias (three-time Ivy League Honorable Mention Player of the Week) recorded an astounding 144 saves this year and will be back to anchor a defense that has been stellar.

Like her teammates, the freshman goalkeeper turned in some great performances against top-ranked teams.

Katsias allowed only one late goal--on a penalty stroke--to seventh-ranked New Hampshire.