Coming back from California to the rapidly cooling climate of Cambridge is always a bummer.

Facing one of the top defensive teams in the Ivy League makes it worse.

Yet, tomorrow the Harvard men's soccer team returns to action against Cornell (5-3, 2-1 Ivy) after dropping both of its matches at the Stanford Invitational last weekend. The Big Red has not allowed a goal in its past four games and hopes to make it a school record fifth straight game with a shutout against the Crimson (2-5-1, 1-1).

The Big Red defense has made it a relatively easy task for senior goaltender Dan Demaine to post clean sheets. During its amazing streak, shutout victims Colgate, Penn, Farleigh Dickinson, and No. 17 Brown, have attempted just nine shots, only three of which Demaine had to stop.

Cornell's 1-0 overtime win over Brown, a top-25 team, certainly proves that the streak is no fluke

Demaine has lowered his GAA to a miserly .360 and has a .909 save percentage.

Cornell will get its fifth straight shutout if the Crimson attack continues to sputter. Harvard did not manage a single goal in its trip to the Left Coast, getting blanked by Stanford, 1-0, and by No. 20 Cal-Berkeley, 3-0.

With a floundering offense, Harvard has dropped three of its past four games, with No. 8 Yale forcing the other goose-egg, 3-0 on Sept. 25.