ALWAYS IN CONTROL

It's easy to spot goalie Brooke Donahoe on the field at a Harvard women's soccer game.

Aside from her recognizable appearance--her neon fluorescent jersey and her lanky 5'11" frame--Donahoe, a native of Scottsdale, Ariz., never fails to give the impression that she's in control of the Crimson, sort of like Jim Baker is with the White House.

From her perch between the pipes, Donahoe verbally and physically sends directives to the Crimson defensive corps, a group that has been the strongest unit of the Crimson this season.

"Brooke's always been a leader--on or off the field," freshman forward Katie DeLellis said. "She really takes charge out there."

"She has an excellent sense of the field and does a great job of commanding," sophomore back-up goalie Koma Gandy said. "She's definitely a reason why our defense has been so strong."

Despite her strong leadership presence on the field, Donahoe is quick to down-play her influence on the team. "Erin Matias [senior half-back], our captain, does a great job of commanding pretty much everybody in front of her," she said. "She's our top leader, and she makes my job a lot easier. I just try to do my best to direct Erin and the fullbacks."

In addition to her leadership qualities, Donahoe also draws attention to herself on the field with her physical abilities.

This season Donahoe is second in the league in saves (92), including a 23-save performance second-ranked Stanford which shattered former Crimson All-American Tracee Whitley's record of 18 set in 1985.

For her outstanding play, Donahoe was named Ivy League Player of the Week two weeks ago.

"I've had a pretty good season this year so far, although I don't know if I really want all those save opportunities," Donahoe joked.

Aside from her saves, though, Donahoe has, in every sense of the word, been an "ironwoman" for the Crimson. In fact, it is apt to compare Donahoe to a Timex watch: she takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin.'

Last year, as a first-year starter, she played all 1,390 minutes of the season in the pipes. This year, she has already played 1,119 minutes, all but 20 minutes in a season which has seen a surfeit of overtime games.

And, as Donahoe concedes, most of those minutes aren't spent picking daisies. Her career in the goalie's box has seen its rough n' tumble days.

"It gets pretty rough in there sometimes," she said. "I'm always afraid that I'm going to hit my head on the post, but usually I just get kicked when the ball is loose.

"I've gotten a lot of bruises," she added. "Being a goalie is definitely rough at times."

This season has been particularly rough for Donahoe in more than a physical sense. The Crimson (4-5-1 overall, 2-2-1 Ivy) have been plagued with scoring problems throughout the season, putting more pressure on Donahoe and her defensive comrades. This offensive funk was never more evident than in the Crimson's 1-0 loss to Yale on Monday, a loss which all but knocked the Crimson out of contention for the Ivy crown.

"It's been a frustrating year," she said. "We have the potential to be awesome, but we aren't taking complete advantage of it."

Donahoe sees anxiety as the Crimson's chief malady. "We get going and we realize that we haven't been scoring that much and we get nervous," she said. "We freeze up and we don't play very well. It's sad.

"But it is something that we'll be able to cure," she said. "We've got a lot of young players and I'm sure, with more experience, next year we'll be very good."

But don't think that Donahoe is writing off this season just yet.

"At this point, we can just go out and have fun," she said. "We don't have the pressure to go out and kill ourselves every game."