It wasn't supposed to be this difficult.

The Harvard women's lacrosse team had expected simply to take a quick ride yesterday over to Rhode Island, play Brown, and come home with an easy victory.

Somehow, though, the plan didn't quite work out.

Although the sixth-ranked Crimson (10-2 overall, 3-1 Ivy) ended up escaping with a hard-fought 10-7 win over the Bears, there were moments yesterday when Coach Carole Kleinfelder doubtlessly wished that she and her team had stayed in Cambridge.

"We just did not have a good game in any area," Co-Captain Rachel Burke said. "It was bad all around."

How bad was it? To quote Elizabeth Barrett Browning: "Let me count the ways..."

The shooting percentage was horrible. The defense allowed Brown easy transition goals. In the midfield, the catching and passing seemed shaky.

"We were very panicked in the first half," Burke said. "It didn't seem like anything was going our way."

Although they never trailed in the contest, Harvard was clearly in danger at halftime of losing to the obviously weaker but highly enthusiasticBrown squad.

The Crimson struggled throughout the first half to stay ahead of the 12th-ranked Bears. After nosing ahead 4-2, Harvard traded goals with Brown to make the score 6-4 at the break.

Any hopes for a quick start in the second half, unfortunately, went down the tubes with a mini-run by Brown.

A few quick Brown goals pulled Harvard into a 7-7 tie early in the second stanza, and Harvard fans began sweating.

Luckily, Co-Captain Liz Berkery, the season-long savior and Harvard's leading scorer for the umpteenth game, stepped up to score a key goal that put Harvard ahead again 8-7. And--finally!--he defense was able to clamp down the rest of the way to preserve the win.

Simple, right? Berkery scores, and the defense shuts down the other team?

Well, maybe the Crimson are satisfied on other days, but not yesterday, when the final margin was only three goals. And not when the NCAA playoffs are only two weeks away.