Stickwomen Miss Tourney Bid Despite Outstanding Campaign

When the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released the seedlings for this year's Division I National Championship field hockey tournament yesterday, Harvard wasn't on the list.

The 11-2-3 Crimson closed out its season Saturday with a scoreless tie against visiting Yale, but even a decisive victory over the 4-4-4 Elis might not have opened the door for what would have been the stick women's first-ever NCAA berth

Of the 12 teams receiving tournament invitations, Harvard played three. The Crimson battled the University of Massachusetts to a scoreless tie, bowed 1-0 at Princeton and fell 3-1 to the University of Connecticut. The only two Northeastern schools receiving tourney bids, UMass and UConn, met in last year's NCAA final.

Harvard drew with Yale and the University of New Hampshire, two teams that UMass beat.

"I can't complain," Crimson Coach Edie Mabrey said yesterday, "though it was a disappointment."

Despite their 0-2-1 mark against tournament-bound competition, the stick women felt they had earned a chance at post-season play by virtue of their consistently high level of play. "I just can't see them not taking a team of our caliber," senior Co-Captain Kate Martin said last week.

Being in the running for a tournament berth at all was impressive for Harvard Coming off a 5-8-2 season and a fifth-place Ivy finish, the stick women compiled an 11-2-3 record and came within a goal of the league crown This was Harvard's first winning season in the four-year history of Ivy League field hockey

Next year should be even better for the Crimson, as this year's squad graduates just four players and only three starters

THE NOTEBOOK: The future looks bright for not only the Harvard field hockey family but the Mabrey family as well. Saturday the Crimson mentor announced that she is pregnant. Look for another Mabrey on the Harvard field hockey roster circa 2000.