NCAA Bid at Stake For W. Soccer vs. Brown

A week after losing its first Ivy League title since 1995, the Harvard women's soccer team wraps up its regular season and tries to guarantee a spot in post-season play when it hosts the sixth-place Brown Bears Saturday at Ohiri Field.

With a win over Brown, the Crimson (10-4-1, 5-1 Ivy), ranked No. 23 in the coaches' poll, would secure a spot in the NCAA tournament. But losing to the lowly Bears (7-8-1, 1-4-1) would probably relegate the Crimson to a seed in the bottom half of the 48-team draw.

Brown has dropped its last two, and would love to end the season with an upset of the favored Harvard team, but the Crimson has won three straight in the series.

Last weekend's loss to seventh-ranked Dartmouth ended Harvard's hopes for the Ivy League title and an automatic bid to the NCAAs. The Crimson had its chance for a three-peat blasted away by the powerful Dartmouth squad. The Big Green took the match 2-1 on a pair of long shots from outside the 18-yard box.

But Harvard refused to give up after Dartmouth's two early goals. Junior forward Beth Zotter buried a rebound off co-captain Emily Stauffer's shot to bring the match to 2-1.

For the rest of the contest, the Crimson kept the ball on the Dartmouth side, and had a number of good scoring opportunities. And when Dartmouth did get an offensive rush, junior goalie Anne Browning came through with save after save, tallying 11 for the day, including a breath-taking diving stop in the 67th minute that drew loud cheers from the crowd.

"Both teams played well, and it was definitely a hard battle," said junior back Gina Foster. "They came out strong and scored some great goals, which we couldn't really stop. We maybe could have marked a little better, but they made some great runs, and our goalie didn't really have a chance."

Even with last Saturday's disappointing result, the Crimson is in the midst of another stellar season. It has lost four games, but each defeat has been to a top-15 team, and it has been within shooting distance of a win in each of the four.

The Crimson, however, will need to step up its level of play for the tournament. With an at-large bid, it will most likely not get a high seed, and should be stacked up against a highly-ranked opponent in the first round.

But even before that, Harvard needs a convincing win over Brown. The tournament selection committee will probably factor this weekend's game into the seedings, and the Crimson would like to go in the tournament as high as possible.

"For the tournament, we're going to take whatever seed we get," Foster said. "We know that we can play with anyone in the country. We could have beaten UConn and Dartmouth, and we'd love to play them again, to show in the second season what we couldn't show in the first."

Some of the Harvard players have also hinted at other motivation for the upcoming game.

"We have a strong personal rivalry [with Brown]," Foster said. "We haven't liked each other for a long time. They are a historical rival, and I know we've disliked them since before I got here. The Brown game is always big, and this year we get the chance to play them at home with a lot on the line."

Brown has had a tough season and did not record its first league victory until two weeks ago over league doormat Penn.

The Bears are led by freshman midfielder Allyson Schwerdt, whose 16 points make her Brown's leading scorer as well as the top freshman scorer in the Ivy League. Sophomore midfielder Bekah Splaine, is right behind Schwerdt with 15 points.

Brown will be faced with a stiff challenge this weekend against an obviously fired-up Harvard squad.

"This is a huge game," said sophomore back Lauren Corkery. "The whole team is really, really psyched. We're out for blood, and we're going to absolutely kill them."