Field Hockey Slips Past URI

After Saturday's tough match against Pennsylvania, the Harvard field hockey team was concerned about its teamwork and its turnovers. All that faded into oblivion yesterday in Providence, R.I., as the squad over powered Rhode Island, 1-0.

Despite the low score, Harvard (2-5-1 overall, 0-2-0 Ivy) thoroughly controlled the game, completely shutting down the Rhode Island offense and mounting one of its strongest offensive attacks of the season.

The decisive score came off the stick of sophomore midfielder Carrie Shumway three-quarters of the way through the first half.

The scoring sequence began on a Harvard penalty corner. Senior forward Sarah Downing passed the free hit to co-captain Francie Walton, who executed a pass left option, hitting freshman back Daphne Clark. Clark took a tremendous shot that was blocked by the Rhode Island netminder, but Shumway recovered the rebound and shot the ball past the besieged goalkeeper.

Throughout both halves, the Crimson maintained the pressure on the URI defense.

"We definitely dominated," co-captain Emily Buxton said. "Everyone was on."

"We communicated really well," sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Milhollin added. "We were passing real well."

Shumway had a particularly strong game. "She dribbled around anyone who came in her way," Milhollin said.

On defense, the dominant three some of co-captain Francie Walton, junior back Megan Colligan, and senior back Deirdre Long managed to contain the speedy Rhode Island offense, holding it to only two penalty corners all game.

"The defense pulled together today, and that made the difference," Milhollin said.

Milhollin also noted that she only touched the ball twice in the game.

This is just the kind of game the team wanted to lead into this weekend, when it takes on Yale and Providence.