F. Hockey Crushes Cornell

The Harvard field hockey team is one of only two teams remaining in the Ivy League still playing on grass. Sunday, on a rain-drenched Cumnock Field, against a Cornell squad which plays almost exclusively on turf, Harvard's familiarity with natural conditions proved to be the decisive edge. CORNELL  1 HARVARD  6

"I don't want to make excuses, but that field was big advantage. It was unforgiving," said Cornell Coach Michelle Frates. "We couldn't adjust and they were able to capitalize."

No excuse could properly explain the outcome, a 6-1 annihilation which left little doubt who was the better team on any surface.

The Crimson (4-5, 3-1 Ivy) settled the game quickly and decisively, taking a 5-0 halftime lead in a performance which could not have been more dominating. In the first period it outshot its opponent 12-0 and had a 10-1 edge in penalty corners.

Junior Katie Schoolwerth opened the scoring less than five minutes in, collecting the ball off a broken corner play and rocketing a hard shot into the goal. One of many encouraging trends in Sunday's game was the Crimson's success on corners, which it has struggled to convert this season.

Co-captain Judy Collins continued the assault, tallying the first of her two goals at the 25:17 mark in spectacular fashion. Denied a forehand shot, she reverse swept the ball to her backhand in traffic, an astonishing move on such a soggy field, then smoked a backhand shot past Cornell keeper Kristi Bullard.

With her seventh and eighth goals of the season, Collins moved to within one point of the Harvard career scoring record of 78 points held by Kate Martin '83.

Freshman Eliza Dick pushed the margin to 3-0, scoring the first goal of her Harvard career past a prone Cornell goalkeeper. She shared that distinction--scoring a first-career goal against the Big Red--with sophomore Jen Crusius and fellow freshman Kate Burrage in what was another encouraging trend for the Crimson.

Crusius scored with 1:20 remaining, out-muscling and out-hustling the defense in the circle for Harvard's fourth, before Collins administered the final blow with 15 seconds left in the half.

The Crimson was not bothered in the second half by the giant puddles on the lower half of the field which in the opening frame had seemed to hamper the Cornell attack.

With the advantage reversed the Crimson adjusted easily, attacking on the same side as they had in the first half and getting the better of play with strong performances from its freshmen.

"It was a great opportunity for [the freshmen] to get in and get some experience and they did a terrific job," Collins said.

Such a convincing outcome came at the perfect time for a Crimson squad with four games coming up in the next week. It will try to even its record for the season when it faces off against New Hampshire in Durham today.

HARVARD, 6-1 at Cumnock Field Cornell  0  1  --  1 Harvard  5  1  --  6

First Half

Har--Schoolwerth (LaSovage, Kalil) 4:43.

Har--Collins (unassisted) 9:53.

Har--Dick (Kalil) 21:57.

Har--Crusius (Schoolwerth) 33:40.

Har--Collins (unassisted) 34:85.

Second Half

Cor--Dean (unassisted) 10:57.

Har--Burrage (Schoolwerth) 18:27.

Saves: Cor--Bullard (35 min.) 8, Sullivan (35 min.) 5; Har--Cowan (60 min.) 8, Marks (10 min.) 1.