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Stickwomen Play to 2-2 Tie

Crimson Blows 2-0 Advantage, Fails to Win in OT

The Harvard field hockey team butted heads with Brown through double overtime Saturday in Providence, R.I., but ended up with only a distasteful 2-2 tie.

The outcome was disappointing for both teams. As Brown coach Wendy Anderson said after the game, "it's a good thing the game ended in a tie, because neither team deserved to win."

Harvard squandered a 2-0 lead and also missed two penalty strokes which would have gift-wrapped the game for them.

All in all, it wasn't a pretty game.

Several balls flew around at waist level. More than one body fell to the turf. Two players received green cards for "unecessary roughness," specifically a slash and a cleat in the stomach. Loren Ambinder broke her nose in a head-on collision.

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Brown scored both its goals on corner shots which resembled field goal attempts. Harvard scored one on a slap-shot.

Played on a roof-top arena which looks and sounds like the inside of a tuna-fish can, the game started encouragingly enough for Harvard, which quickly gained control of its right side of the field.

Fast Out of the Blocks

Two minutes into the game Harvard jumped to the lead. On a penalty corner, Kristen Fowler took a hard shot from the top of the circle. The ball broke by the goalie's pads and rolled behind her. Rachael Burke pounced on the rebound and deposited it in the net.

Minutes later, Harvard struck again. The Crimson deftly moved the ball up field and worked it towards Fowler standing just inside the circle. She unloaded a slap shot to give Harvard a 2-0 lead. Things were not looking very good for Brown.

"We have played much better than that this season," Anderson said. "We didn't come out with the same zip. Our mistakes cost us, especially on the penalty corner which led to Harvard's first goal."

Brown began to show some zip soon after Harvard's second goal, while the Crimson began to scramble around. Brown's hits began to break through Harvard's defense and Harvard's own hits and passes were deflected. Harvard's defense smothered two of Brown's penalty corners as the Brown pressure continued, but this success would come back to haunt the Crimson.

With about six minutes left, another penalty corner was called against Harvard. Brown tried something a little different this time.

Jacquelin Nicewarner lofted a shot over the out-stretched stick and glove of Lisa Yadao, settling the ball into the left corner of the net.

Anderson later explained that their normal shooter for corners and leading scorer, Patricia Beatini, had broken her hand in the Bears' last game. Brown couldn't run some of its corner plays with Beatini's hand demobilized, so the Bears turned to their flick play.

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