W. Booters Fall to UConn, 3-0

Twenty minutes.

For most Harvard students, 20 minutes marks the time it takes to stroll to the Quad, dash across campus or push and shove through the lunch line at the Union.

But for those students on the women's soccer team the time frame has added significance: it can, as evidenced in yesterday's 3-0 loss to Connecticut, mark the difference between peril and promise.

The crucial period in the yesterday's game was halftime.

During that 1,200 seconds, Harvard transformed itself from a sluggish beating horse for the third best team in the nation to a formidable opponent for the Huskies in the second half.

"The best way to describe our play today is to say that we were schizophrenic," Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "We played terrible in the first half and then perhaps better than we've played all season in the second. It was a game of ups and downs to say the least."

In the first half, Harvard gave up all three of its goals to the Huskies, and hardly managed to make a whimper offensively.

"It seemed like we just never got off the bus mentally," Wheaton said. "We weren't aggressive at all offensively, and we even got pushed around a little bit on defense. It wasn't too pretty."

Wheaton couldn't point to any one reason for the Crimson's lackadaisical play.

"I think it was a combination of a lot of things," he said. "It was a long bus ride, for one, and also, I think we just might have been a little intimidated by their reputation. I think we came in thinking we couldn't play with them, and, in the first half, we didn't."

Then, however, came the 20 minutes and, after that, a new Crimson.

In the second half, Harvard revved up its swarming defense and coaxed its lethargic offense out of its cocoon.

"We played great in the second half," Wheaton said. "Our confidence really seemed to build over halftime--we seemed more alert and more aggressive."

Of course, the Crimson wasn't alert or aggressive enough to seriously threaten the Huskies.

"We might not have closed the gap any on them, but we definitely played with them," he said, "and when you're talking about the number three team in the country, that's saying something."

Halfway There

The loss marked the midpoint of the season for Harvard. Despite an overall even record, the Crimson (4-4-0 overall, 2-1-0 Ivy) is excited about its prospects for the rest of the season.

"Every year we have one big goal--to win the Ivy League Championship," Wheaton said. "Right now, we couldn't have hoped to be in a better position to do that."

The Crimson has taken only one loss in league play, while only two teams--Princeton and Dartmouth--are without a loss.

"The exciting thing is that we've yet to play both of those teams that are ahead of us," Wheaton said.

"If we play like we did in the second half today, we can beat them. In that case, assuming we win our other league games, we'd be tied for first in the league. That's not too bad at all."