Brown simply was better, and it wore down the young Harvard team. Harvard showed that it could play with the best in the nation for a half, but not a whole game.

"The key was groundballs," Marvin said. "They swarmed the groundballs and as a result got some easy transition goals."

Brown grabbed 85 groundballs to Harvard's 53. A team just cannot win with this great a deficit in the groundball area.

In addition, the constant pressure on the Harvard defense finally showed results. Brown peppered the net with 48 shots.

Harvard has a great defensive unit led by senior Co-Captain Chad Prusmack, but it cannot carry the weight of the whole team. It simply broke down yesterday.

"They're a young talented team," Brown Coach Peter Lasagna said. "But we just won so many faceoffs in a row, they were forced to play too much defense. We are quite strong on offense, so if we have that many opportunities, we are going to score some goals."

On the bright side (for there usually is one) was the continued production from the young offense.

Freshman Mike Eckerd added another goal to his superb season, and sophomores Marvin (two goals), Steve Gaffney (one goal), and Dan Nickolas (one goal and assist) contributed to the team scoring.

But in the end, it wasn't nearly enough. Harvard faced a stronger Brown squad and did not play up to its potential.

And that's a combination that would prove fatal for any team in any sport.