Field Hockey Ruins Brown's Perfect Bid

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--With Brown only moments away from winning the Ivy Title outright, the Harvard field hockey team stunned the Bears, 3-2, in the most dramatic upset of the Ivy League season.

No.15 Brown (13-3, 6-1 Ivy) came into Saturday's showdown needing only a tie to claim sole possession of the Ivy Title, but with under a minute remaining and the score deadlocked 2-2 in overtime, Harvard (11-6, 4-3 Ivy) stole the championship from underneath the Bears' paws.

Intercepting a Brown pass at midfield, junior midfielder Maisa Badawy reversed the Brown drive and made a great run up the field to score an unassisted goal on an incredible individual effort.

Seeing only 20 seconds left on the clock, Badawy used her lightning speed to break free to the far sideline.

With senior forward Kim Rogers and junior forward Susana Garcia in hot pursuit and Rogers about to cut her off, Badawy cut back to the inside and shook Rogers, who was tripped up by her own stick.

Finding herself face-to-face with Garcia, Badawy broke back to the outside as the Brown defender futilely lunged at Badawy's heels.

With a pair of Brown defenders lying helplessly on the field and looking foolish, Badawy broke free and made a run straight for the Bears' goal.

Less than 10 yards from the net, the Brown defender tried to land a tackle, but before she could, Badawy unleashed a bullet pegged for the far corner.

Sophomore goaltender Annie Owens made a diving grab to her right, and got a piece of the shot.

However, Owens couldn't get enough as Badawy's shot trickled over the line with 10 seconds remaining in overtime.

"It was so crazy," Badawy said. "Brown was just standing there stunned as if they thought they'd win the game, and we were all just so happy. It was the best win of the season for us and gives us so much confidence going into the ECACs."

Despite the game's dramatic finish, Saturday's showdown was anything but a close contest throughout the game.

Uncharacteristically, the Crimson, which has had trouble scoring in the first half all season, came out and scored twice in the first 15 minute to get a seemingly-commanding 2-0 lead.

Only six minutes into the first half, the Crimson got the break they were looking for on a timely penalty corner opportunity.

Taking a well-placed inbound pass from tri-captain forward Dominique Kalil, overtime heroine Badawy placed the ball perfectly, and tri-captain back Katie Schoolwerth teed up and stroked a shot past the Brown goalkeeper.

Less than a minute later, however, another penalty corner almost went disastrously wrong for the Crimson.

Missing the inbound pass, Harvard turned the ball over and the Bears drove down the field lead by junior forward Tara Mounsey.

Mounsey, Ivy League player of the week twice this season, leads the Ivy in scoring with 19 goals and 10 assists for 48 points and was a thorn in the Crimson's side all day long.

Taking the ball to within yards of the goal, Mounsey made a near perfect crossing pass to sophomore forward Hyun-Joo Park, flipping the ball over the sticks of a pair of Crimson defenders.

As she would all day, tri-captain netminder Anya Cowan made a spectacular save, coming out to challenge Park and cutting down the angle.

Buoyed by Cowan's play in net, Harvard struck back, scoring their second goal in under ten minutes.

Off a free shot from Badawy, junior forward Kate Nagle ticked a slow shot past a motionless Brown goaltender, who just stood there like a deer in the headlights.

However, Harvard would need all the breaks that it could get Saturday, because the Bears would come roaring back.

Calling a timeout after the Crimson went up 2-0, the Bears came out of the break looking like a new team.

Brown dominated the final 20 minutes of the first and could have scored on several golden opportunities if wasn't for the netminding of Cowan.

Literally saving the day for the Crimson, Cowan registered 18 saves and allowed only two goals against the Ivy League's highest-scoring offense.

"I've played with Anya for three years," Kalil said. "And this was the best I've ever seen her play. She knows how to keep her head when the game gets hot and she did a great job of organizing the defense."

Cowan lead the Ivy League this season with a save percentage of .843 and was named Ivy League player of the week in late September.

However, Cowan's performance against Brown was even better than the numbers would suggest. Cowan kept the team in the game as Brown dominated the overtime period, and as she has all season, made the big saves when she needed to the most.

Despite Cowan's valiant effort, Brown slowly battled back for a 2-0 deficit.

After Cowan made the first two saves, Mounsey finally batted in the rebound and gave the Bears some life with just 56 seconds remaining in the first half, narrowing the score to 2-1.

Re-energized by its late goal, Brown came out from halftime looking for the equalizer.

Exactly three minutes into the second half, the Bears found what they were looking for as Mounsey netted her second goal of the game off a penalty corner and tied the contest 2-2.

Harvard protested that the goal was too high to no avail, and the Crimson knew it was in trouble.

With the momentum on their side, the Bears kept coming and appeared to score the go-ahead goal midway through the second half on another high shot by Mounsey.

However, the Crimson caught a break as Mounsey's goal was disallowed for being dangerously high.

Cowan and the Harvard defense weathered the storm for the remainder of the second half and sent the game into overtime.

In overtime, the Bears once again came out shooting as the Crimson repeatedly failed to clear the zone.

"We started to play too conservatively in overtime and they just came out really strong," Badawy said. "We weren't playing to score and we were just playing too defensively."

Stopping four penalty corners in the extra period, Cowan kept Harvard alive and allowed Badawy to score the winner with just 10 seconds left on Harvard's only shot in overtime.

With the exception of the opening 15 minutes, Brown outplayed Harvard throughout the game, outshooting the Crimson 23-4 and registering nine penalty corners compared to only two for Harvard.

Nonetheless, the Crimson refused to give up and turned in its guttsiest performance of the season.

"Throughout the game, the defense was just barely holding the fort," Kalil said. "We barely touched the ball in overtime, but in the last couple of minutes we seemed to calm down and we were lucky enough to capitalize on our only opportunity."

After a number of close losses to some of the best teams in the country, including a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of No.1 Connecticut and a heartbreaking overtime loss to No.17 Princeton, Harvard finally showed that it could beat one of the top teams in the country.

Riding high after downing the nationally-ranked Bears, Harvard should receive an at-large big to the ECACs next weekend.

For now, Harvard must wait anxiously to find out its post-season fate when the ECAC draw is determined this Wednesday.