Huge Game Today For Women's Soccer

Are you ready for some futbol? No, you won't see any gaudy promotion and helmets crashing together on national TV, but today's women's soccer match-up between Harvard and Cornell is not only the most important game of the week, but quite possibly the game of the year for the Crimson.

A season, especially one game in, usually doesn't come down to a must-win situation.

In the case of the Harvard women's soccer team (2-1-1 overall, 0-0-1 Ivy), however, today's 1:00 matchup against Ivy League powerhouse Cornell (4-1-1, 2-0-0) at Ohiri Field should be a good measuring stick from which to tell where the Crimson will wind up this year.

Last year, for example, Harvard dropped a tough 2-1 contest to Cornell when the Big Red scored with a mere two and a half minutes remaining in overtime. The Crimson, 1-0 in the Ivies entering the match, would go on to finish 3-4 in the Ancient Eight season, far out of contention.

Meanwhile, the Big Red wound up second in the Ivies, one year after having won the crown, and this year's squad is once again one of the strongest in the league.

"I think we definitely can match them," co-captain Beth Morgan said. "Last year we played very well, but it was a real letdown to lose."

Added to the challenge of facing perhaps the best team in the Ancient Eight is the fact that the game is the first of two tilts Harvard is playing this weekend in the inaugural Harvard Invitational tournament.

The Crimson will battle Fairfield tomorrow at 2:00, while local rival Boston College faces Fairfield today at 11:00 and Cornell tomorrow at noon.

And by the time tomorrow night comes along. Harvard will have played over 480 minutes of soccer in nine days--Harvard best Davidson and fell to Virginia in overtime during another tournament last weekend before blanking Boston College on Wednesday.

That's five games plus at least two overtimes against five top-quality teams, so fatigue will most likely affect the team's legs.

"We haven't overextended ourselves the past two practices," Morgan said. "We have a lot of depth and will rely on that. Anyone on our team can come on in and get the job done."

Getting the job done recently has been Harvard's defense, allowing only two goals in its last three games, those goals came in overtime against number-12 Virginia.

But the Big Red comes into today's contest having outscored its last four opponents, 13-1, including 4-0 and 5-0 shutouts over Ivy foes Pennsylvania and Princeton, respectively.

For the Crimson to be successful it will have to shut down Cornell's Lori Penny, who has scored eight times already this season. Tasha Fleury and Amy Duesing are the other big guns on the Big Red roster, each having found the mesh twice.

On the other side of the field, goaltender Sue DeLong brings a 0.60 goals against average and 92.9 save percentage into today's game--numbers rather intimidating for a Harvard squad that has been generating many offensive chances but converting very few.

"We've got to work on finishing, but we're generating the chances, which is also important," co-captain Genevieve Chelius said.

Harvard has been relying on its freshman to jump start its offense--Emily Stauffer, Kristen Bowes and Keren Gudeman have scored all but one of the team's five goals.

All told, today's game is crucial not only for this year's Ivy race but it also be a good learning experience for the young Harvard squad.