F. Hockey Can't Find Footing

1995 was not the year for the Harvard field hockey team, to say the least.

Picture a team entering the year with only one departing senior, a serious Player of the Year candidate and three solid freshmen.

Now picture that team finishing 1-5 in the league and 5-12 overall.

That's the story of the season for the Crimson: unrealized potential.

"It was disappointing," senior Maureen O'Brien said. "Hopefully next year they'll get a chance to get it together."

Harvard's offense never got going all year, scoring only 19 goals, and no player had more than 14 points. Co-captain Carrie Shumway (two goals, eight assists) was not Player of the Year, and season ended with more questions than answers.

Things got off to a bad start when starting sophomore backs Beck Stringer and Eileen Horwath were sidelined with injuries, and neither played very much during the year.

As a result, Harvard coach Sue Caples had to rustle up a defense, and it wasn't until midway through the season that she settled on moving junior midfielder Daphne Clark to sweeper and bringing up freshman Tara LaSovage to center midfield.

But by that time, Harvard was in deep trouble. The Crimson went a measly 2-6 before its first Ivy game against Cornell.

And in that game, Harvard sputtered to a 2-0 loss, its worst Ivy defeat against one of the league's weaker teams.

Next Harvard fell to Yale and Penn by 1-0 scores, which dropped the team's record to 2-7 and gave the Crimson a four-game scoreless streak.

Victories over New Hampshire and UC-Berkeley put two wins on the board, but then Harvard lost another four in a row, including a close 2-1 defeat at the hands of Princeton, the eventual league champ.

That's a measure of how annoyingly weird the season was for the Crimson. This team could lose to Cornell by two but almost knock off Princeton.

Finally, the season ended on a bit of an up note with a 2-0 victory over Brown and a snowy 2-0 loss at Dartmouth. In both games, Harvard played better than it had earlier in the season, if only slightly.

The good news for the Crimson next year is that no forwards and backs are graduating. Freshmen Judy Collins and Penny Fairbairn played well at forward all season, as did junior Courtenay Benedict and sophomore Jen Bowdoin, and, with Horwath and Stringer returning, Harvard will have more backs than it will know what to do with.

The midfield and the goaltender positions will be question marks, however. Co-captain Jessica Milhollin, Harvard's all-time save leader, will walk at Commencement, as will Shumway and Maureen O'Brien.

Expect at least one of those backs to move up to the midfield, then, perhaps freshman Stacey DiCicco. Finally, at goal, freshman Laura Stillman has the early nod.

Harvard Sports Stats 1995-96

Field Hockey

Record: 5-12, 1-5 Ivy

Ivy Finish: Sixth

Head Coach: Sue Caples

Captains: Jessica Milhollin '96, Carrie Shumway '96

Other Key Players: Daphe Clark '97, Judy Collins '99, Courtenay Benedict '97, Sally Romano '98, Maureen O'Brien '96