Watch Out Harvard

In her five years at the being Harvard field hockey coach Edle Mabery has had her fair share of success. She's beaten nationally-ranked teams, she's beaten superior Ivy teams and she's beaten previously undefended teams.

She's just never beaten she Princeton team.

Four times they've met, four times the Tigers have won. It's a goose egg on an otherwise fine record.

But if ever there were a year when Mabrey and her troops were capable of taming the Tigers, none seems better than this one. Come tomorrow, the stickwomen will be the clear favorites to tally Mabrey's first Princeton victory.

A win for Mabery and the Crimson would all but cement a first-over Ivy tide for the young Harvard squad. The only undefended team left in the league (at 3-0), the Crimson would only need one victory in its last two Ivy games--which come against lowly Brown and Yale--to garner the title and the accompanying NCAA tourney bid.

And even with the quiet confidence that surrounds the Harvard squad these days, there is still one fact that worries supporters: the jinx is on.

And if you listen to Tiger Coach Betty Logan, she says her squad will once again be more than ready for league-leading Harvard.

"Just tell Harvard to watch out," Logan joked yesterday. "We've finally got a sense of what we've capable of."

But the Tigers evidently haven't been capable of too much so far this year. They are a horrendous 1-7-3 overall and 0-3-1 in Ivy contests. All that from a team that last year fought its way to the NCAA tournament, amassing a 12-3-1 overall mark and a perfect 6-0 Ivy record.

"Let's just say we've had a few problems we hadn't expected," Logan said.

Let's just say that's the understatement of the field hockey year.

What a difference a year makes. The Tigers' troubles seem to stem from the loss of six starters from last year's team to graduation, and then the loss of two more--one All-American and the other All-Ivy--to season-ending injuries.

Logan's early-season sleepless nights have become a tad more restful lately, though, as the Tigers have turned in several strong defensive performances. The latest came last week when Princeton tied the country's fifth-ranked team, Temple, 2-2 in double overtime.

And now that any hopes of any title couldn't be any bleaker for the Tigers, Logan says there isn't any pressure on her team.

"There's no question we're the spoilers now," she said. "We have nothing to lose and Harvard has everything to lose. I think we'll come in very loose."

What the Tigers will find in the Cantabs is a squad itching to avenge last year's 1-0 loss that cost Harvard the Ivy title, and one that has now achieved its highest national ranking of all time. Although you wouldn't know it by its mediocre 5-5 mark, the Crimson is ranked 17th nationally. Undoubtedly, the ranking is on the strength of Harvard's unblemished Ivy mark.

"They really don't have any Kate Martins left," Logan said, referring to the Crimson's All-American of a year ago. "But they've got a bunch of steady players. And that's the reason they've become the team to beat."

But for Mabrey and company, Princeton's the team to beat.