Highs and Lows Every Year

In the fall, she and her team usually took a fall. As a field hockey player, Kate Felsen was not accustomed to winning.

In the spring, she and her team sprung to the top of the league. As a lacrosse player, Kate Felsen was not used to losing.

Two season. Two sports. Two sides of the win loss column.

Same player.

This year, the Harvard field hockey team turned in another of a string of disappointing seasons. The Crimson finished with a 6-7-2 overall record and a 1-4-1 Ivy mark, which put Harvard in sixth place in the league.

"We always played so well in the games we weren't supposed to win," Felsen said. "Then we'd play pathetically in games we were supposed to win."

The Crimson did not lack ability, just victories.

"We had so much talent out there," Felsen says. "There was really no excuse for the kinds of seasons we had."

This year, the Harvard lacrosse team turned in another in a string of stellar seasons. The Crimson finished with a 12-3 overall record, and a 6-0 Ivy mark, which gave Harvard its second-straight league championship.

Oh, yes, Harvard also made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

"The most exciting thing was playing in the NCAA Tournament," Felsen says. "The last four years, we've come so close to making it. The year before I got here, there was a 12-team tournament. But the NCAA has cut back so much."

In 1984, the NCAA institued a six-team tournament. For three years, the Crimson was team number seven. Unlucky number seven.

"We never seemed to be able to win the big game [that would earn the team a spot in the tournament]," Felsen says. "Or, we'd win one big game and we wouldn't win two big games. We'd beat Maryland, then we'd lose to UMass."

"This year, we only had one lapse--against Loyola in the beginning of the year," Felsen adds. "Other than that, we kept getting better and better."

Better and better--all the way to the NCAA Final Four, where the Crimson fell to eventual champion Temple, 13-8.

As a field hockey player, Felsen led the team in scoring with five goals and four assists this year. As a lacrosse player, she led the Crimson in scoring with 43 goals and 14 assists.

Felsen's lacrosse talents have not gone unnoticed outside of Cambridge. In the spring of her sophomore year, she played on the United States Lacrosse Team, the equivalent of a U.S. Olympic team. Felsen will try out for the team again this year.

As a field hockey player, Felsen never experienced a winning season. As a lacrosse player she never experienced a losing season--just three Ivy League titles and a trip to the Final four.

You win some, you lose some. Just ask Kate Felsen.