Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

The Harvard men's soccer team's 2-1 loss to Princeton leaves the team little chance to retain its Ivy League crown, and all but eliminates it from the NCAA tournament picture.

It's shame, because the way the season started, it looked like Harvard would be one of the teams to beat for the Ivy championship.

In what looked to be a portent of good things to come, it spanked Columbia, a team given a preseason ranking of 13 by Soccer America, 3-0.

It seemed like the Harvard Express was leaving the station, and the way the team was playing, they looked unstoppable.

What happened?

It's hard to say, but a lot of things have gone wrong for the Crimson since their euphoric Columbia win.

At that point, the Crimson had already lost junior midfielder Kevin Silva for the season. At various times since, Harvard lost junior forward Rich Wilmot, junior back John Vrionis, sophomore back Tom McLaughlin and freshman forward Zach Viders to injuries.

Meanwhile, junior forward Will Kohler was being subjected to beatings reminiscent of those lavished on hockey's Steve Martins last year, and junior goalie Peter Albers was playing through injury as well.

All in all, the bench looked as much like a ward of Stillman Infirmary as a soccer team, and it would be impossible to expect tremendous soccer from such a battered bunch.

But there was more than just injury at work against the Crimson, and Saturday's disappointing game may have held a few clues.

For the first 15 minutes, the game was owned by Princeton. Harvard was trying hard--maybe too hard--and just couldn't get anything started.

Harvard couldn't seem to get the ball past midfield. Passes were missed or were intercepted, and both the offense and defensive units seemed confused. At least three goal kicks got caught by Saturday's monsoon-force winds and went out of bounds.

But most importantly, for these first 15 minutes, Princeton just looked like the hungrier team. They continuously beat Harvard to loose balls. Wherever you looked, there was someone in orange. And they played a ball-control oriented game, waiting for their opportunity to break down field.

Princeton finally scored its first goal on a defensive mixup between Albers and his defense.