The Harvard field hockey team continued its travels down heartbreak road last night, losing to Boston College, 1-0, on Eagle forward Shannon Topping's goal with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
Because of their victory, the Eagles (now 10-6-1) captured the Boston Four title by virtue of their 2-0-1 record against Harvard, Northeastern and Boston University. B.C. finished in last place in the Big Four last year.
Before last night, the Crimson (2-7-3 overall, 1-1 Boston Four) had only one goal remaining in its disappointing season--to win the Big Four crown. But with that goal now out of reach, Harvard--already out of the race for the Ivy League championship--is hoping to string together victories in its final three games of the year against Brown, B.U. and Yale and finish its season on a high note.
"We've improved so much since the beginning of the season, "Crimson forward Nicole Simourian said. "I think what we're going to do now is go into our last three games and give it our all. There's definitely a spirit left in this team."
Harvard has the opportunity to play spoiler in its game against Brown Saturday at Soldiers Field. The Bruins (4-1 Ivy League) need only beat Harvard (0-2-2 Ivy) to win at least a share of the Ivy crown for the first time since 1984. But if Harvard sends Brown home with a loss, Pennsylvania--also 4-1 in the league--may take the crown for the second straight year.
"We'd like to deny Brown the title," Simourian said. "We don't want Brown to win. And after Brown, we still have our old rivalry with Yale."
The Elis, who have won only once in the Ivy League, will battle the Crimson November 6 at Soldiers Field. Last year, the Harvard-Yale clash was a fight for second place--with the squads sharing the honor after a 1-1 tie. This year, it may be a battle to stay out of the Ivy basement.
Harvard will be looking to avenge last year's 1-0 loss to Boston University when it travels to Nickerson Field Tuesday to face the Terriers.
Last night, in front of 50 spectators at Alumni Stadium in Chesnut Hill, the Eagles and Crimson battled evenly for most of the game, before the home team pulled out the victory.
"I was surprised," Eagle forward Shannon Murphy said. "I didn't think Harvard was going to play that well."
The Crimson, with fast forwards Cindi Ersek, Char Joslin, Kate Felsen and Simourian, was looking to jump on the Eagles early. But the B.C. defense, led by goalie Cathy O'Brien, stifled the attack.
"Our defense held out, which was good because Harvard has great forwards," Murphy said. "It was a pretty even game in the first half, but we started to take charge with 20 minutes left in the game."
"They didn't out-play us," Simourian said. "We dominated a lot of the game. We had a couple of opportunities to score. They were just lucky and got it in."
The Crimson now owns a 10-game winless streak, and hasn't scored a goal in two weeks. But this is the same team that exploded for five goals in its season-opener against Rhode Island--and a similar high-scoring performance may be lurking somewhere on Harvard's travels down heartbreak road.
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