Field Hockey Snaps Losing Streak, Manhandles Brown

The Harvard women's field hockey snapped its four game losing steak yesterday with a 2-0 domination of Brown at Providence, K.I. With the victory, the Crimson moved to 1-4 in the Ivy League and 5-11 overall while Brown fell to 0-6 in the Ivy League.

Leading the way for the Crimson were freshman Penny Fairbairn and senior Maureen O'Brien, each scoring their first goal of the season.

Co-captain Jessica Milhollin also turned in a stellar performance with eight saves as goalkeeper.

Both goals for the Crimson came in the first period. The first came from Bairbairn less than 10 minutes into the first period.

The second goal, scored by O'Brien, was keyed by an assist from freshman Judy Collins. Collins got the ball on a fast transition. After shaking a few defenders, she found an uncovered O'Brien and a 2-0 lead for Harvard.

The two Brown goalkeepers that split game's time--Kelly MacKinnon and Amy Surbats--turned in a total of 10 saves, but the Harvard offensive proved to be overwhelming.

Harvard also overpowered the Bears defensively, giving Milhollin her second shutout of the season.

The Crimson defense also dominated by not giving Brown one penalty corner. Despite failing to convert on its own nine penalty corners, not giving any to Brown was an improvement over previous performances this year.

"This was a very big win for us," Clark said. "We definitely dominated them in every aspect of the game."

Unfortunately, the rest of the season has not been quite so successful for Harvard. The Crimson had lost its last four games and eight of its last 10.

"We have played very well, but we haven't been taking advantage of all of the opportunities given to us," Clark said. "We've had some bad luck."

"We've had a lot of close games against the other Ivy League teams," O'Brien said. "They all could have gone either way."

Of Harvard's previous four Ivy losses, three were by one goal and one of those was in overtime.

However, the Crimson do have a good chance of ending the season on a positive note against Dartmouth on Saturday.

"Hopefully this win will give us some momentum that we can carry over into the Dartmouth game," O'Brien said. "We are very evenly matched. It's just a matter of coming out and putting together a complete game."

With a win this Saturday, Harvard will finish the season with two Ivy League wins.

"If we can win next week we'll end the season on two Ivy League wins," Clark said. "That would be very big for us and how we view the season."

Scoring

Har Fairbairn 35:52.

Har O'Brien (Collins) 8:20.

Saves:Har--Milhollin 6-2-8; Br--MacKinnon 6-x 6, Surbats 4-4 Harvard  2 Brown  0 HARVARD, 2-0 at Warner Roof, Providence R.I. Harvard  2  0  --  2 Brown  0  0  --  0