ITHACA, N.Y.--Maybe it's a curse.

Whatever it is, it has twice prevented the Harvard women's soccer team from winning crucial games this season.

The last time the Crimson was at Cornell's Alumni Field, it lost to the Big Red, 2-1, a loss which knocked Harvard out of the race for the Ivy title.

This time, it was the sixth-seeded James Madison Dukes who blew past the second-seeded Crimson, 2-1, in the ECAC tournament semifinals.

It has to be a curse. The Crimson was favored to win each time.

Against the Dukes, Harvard had one goal negated by an offsides call, and once had play whistled dead just before senior Jen Minkus scorched the ball past Chery1 Carr, the Dukes goalie, for the potential tying score.

Against Cornell, the Crimson lost when the Big Red was awarded a penalty kick in the waning moments of the game.

Rotten luck. Twice. It's a curse.

"We were very evenly matched," Co-Captain Robin Johnston said. "It could've gone either way."

Other than the Curse of Alumni Field working its magic against Harvard, it was the impressive speed of the Dukes that won them the semifinal matchup.

James Madison completely disrupted the Crimson's game plan and dictated the game's tempo, which turned out to be a fast, end-to-end style of soccer. Harvard was simply unable to stay with the Dukes.

The Dukes' superior speed enabled them to maintain a high pressure, double-teaming defense that shut down the Crimson's front line of Johnston, Minkus and junior Laurie Uustal.

"They were big and quick through the midfield, and through their forwards as well," Minkus said.

The Dukes' play impressed even their coach, David Lombardo.

"I thought we played some of the best soccer of our season," Lombar do said. "We needed all of it, though, to defeat this good Harvard team."

The whole game turned on one sequence early in the second half.

With the score knotted at 1-1, the Crimson took the opening kick all the way down to the James Madison goal box, where Johnston knocked in the apparent go-ahead goal on a cross from sophomore Martha Schneider, who was alone on the wing.

But the referees ruled that Schneider had been offsides before she had the ball, and negated the score.

From there, James Madison took almost complete control of the game, and scored the eventual game-winning goal 15 minutes later.

Minkus scored the only goal for the Crimson on a heads-up play 23:02 into the first half. Minkus alertly stole a back pass intended for Carr and flipped the ball past her into the net.

James Madison tied the score with 9:23 remaining on a four-man fast break. The Crimson defense was caught napping and left forward Lisa Strottman wide open on the wing. Her shot arced over sophomore goalie Brooke Donahoe and into the net for the tying goal.

"They took advantage of the chances we gave them," Donahoe said. "They worked hard for their goals, and they got them."

James Madison's game-winning goal came on an ordinary throw-in play. A Dukes player hurled a line-drive from the sidelines to the goal box, where it was tipped past an unprepared Donahoe for the score.

"It was essentially a corner kick," said Donahoe. "It was amazing."

But despite all the speed and energy displayed by the Dukes, this is one the Crimson could have taken. They had several chances to score (most notably the two opportunites by Minkus), but something always happened to prevent the Crimson from tallying.

"They were a little faster, but they were a little luckier, too," Johnston said.