This was a painful loss.

In fact, the Harvard women's soccer team's loss yesterday afternoon at Ohiri Field stood as a paragon of a painful Crimson loss.

First, the game was close. The Crimson fell 1-0 for its fourth straight non-win in four very, very close ballgames.

Second, it was an important Ivy League game. Harvard's season-long goal is to take the Ancient Eight title, and yesterday's game was a near must-win contest for the Crimson.

And third, it was against...gulp...Yale.

Enough said.

"This was a painful one, alright," Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "It was like a lot of other games this year in that we did everything but score goals. But that really doesn't matter."

Yale (7-4-0 overall, 2-1-0 Ivy) came into the game fourth in the Ivies and 19th in the nation. The Elis were coming off of a huge 1-0 win over previous league co-leader Dartmouth on Saturday.

Despite Yale's intimidating resume coming into the game, however, the Crimson played the Bulldogs virtually even.

"They seemed beatable, very beatable," Crimson freshman forward Katie DeLellis said. "They've definitely got some good players, but we could've beat them."

In the fist half, the Crimson showed a little offensive spark, getting off three shots compared with the Elis' five, but neither team could tally.

"The first half was pretty even," Wheaton said. "We had a lot of opportunities offensively that we just didn't take advantage of, but our defense was virtually flawless."

In the second half, the two teams played similarly--with one big exception: Yale junior mid-fielder Jen Teti's goal off the post with 18:29 left in the game. The returning all-Ivy pick's goal was one of only two shots the Crimson defense afforded the Elis in the second half.

Harvard's defense may have been impressive, but its offense was not, managing only one shot in the second half.

"We seemed to have opportunities, but we just couldn't take advantage of them," he said. "It was the same thing we've had problems with all season."

DeLellis echoed Wheaton's assessment of the Crimson's offense.

"It's like we know that we've been having offensive problems all season and so we get nervous when we get the ball," she said. "I think we'll get better, though."

The Crimson Spoiler

The loss all but knocks the Crimson out of contention for the Ivy Crown.

"I see us as playing the role of the spoiler in the league, now," Wheaton said. "We just need to do what we can in the league form here on out, and we'll see what happens."

Yale, 1-0 at Ohiri Field Yale  0  1  --1 Harvard  0  0  --0

G. Yale--J. Teti; Harvard--None. A: Yale--None. Harvard--None. S: Yale--T. Pihl, 4; Harvard--B. Donahoe, 5.