Surging W. Soccer Hosts Struggling Cornell Today

The Harvard women's soccer team (5-2, 1-1 Ivy) will look to turn its busiest stretch of the year into its most successful when it hosts Cornell and Davidson this weekend at the Harvard Invitational.

Earlier this week, the Crimson defeated No. 23 Boston College in a thrilling 2-1 double-overtime triumph. With the win, Harvard exorcised the demons created by the Eagles' unceremonious 1-0 ousting of the Crimson in the second round of last year's NCAA tournament.

"That was a huge win for us," said senior Meredith Stewart, who sent the game-winner past BC's Courtney Schaeffer on Wednesday. "It helped us out a lot within the region, and gives us some confidence to go on."

After a win that could propel the team back to a Top 25-ranking, the remainder of this three-game, five-day homestand may seem a bit anticlimactic.

However, Harvard's booters realize that there is still work to be done.

"The BC game was a huge win over a top team," said co-captain Brooke McCarthy. "But we're still incredibly focused on the Ivy League."

Winning the Ivy League championship would give the Crimson an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament in November. Despite an early--and unexpected--loss to surging Brown (8-0, 1-0), Harvard is still in the thick of the Ivy race.

Although wins like Wednesday's will surely bolster the Crimson's regional ranking--Harvard and BC began the week No. 5 and No. 3 respectively--Harvard would prefer to assure itself a bid the old-fashioned way.

"You can't count on an at-large bid to get to the NCAA's," McCarthy said. "So every Ivy League game is really important for us."

With a critical game against Princeton (7-1, 3-0) in two weeks, the objective is to keep the Tigers' lead in the Ivy loss column at one until then.

Harvard will resume its Ivy charge today at 3 p.m. at Ohiri Field against a Cornell team that has had trouble finding the back of the net this year. The contest will count as both a tournament and league game.

The Big Red (1-7, 1-2) has lost five straight since beating Columbia in its first Ivy League game, 2-1. During that stretch, Cornell has only managed to put more than one goal on the board on one occasion.

The Big Red skid includes 2-1 losses to Penn and Yale.

However, Harvard is not about to estimate the damage a team down on its luck can do.

"We expect a battle," McCarthy said. "They're a better team than their record. All the games they've lost have been really close."

Six of Cornell's seven losses were by a single goal.

Cornell's inability to close the door may be partially due to its inexperience. The Big Red scoring attack features five freshmen.

However, the lack of successful finishes is hardly indicative of the general ferocity of Cornell's scoring attack.

"I expect them to play us about as well as Brown did," said Stewart. "They really go after the ball well."

Cornell is as scrappy as it is youthful.

"They're a good team and they play a lot of possessions," said McCarthy. We're just going to have to play our game."

Harvard's game has featured a top-notch defense, led by sophomore goalkeeper Cheryl Gunther. The sequel to Gunther's phenomenal freshman campaign has been marred by various injuries, but she still maintains a respectable 0.43 goals- against average.

"I think Cheryl's been tremendous," Stewart said. "She's made huge saves for us throughout the season."

As for the offense, Harvard will probably continue to experiment with a three-forward line that proved successful both in a recent 2-0 West Coast swing and against BC.

Sophomores Joey Yenne and Beth Totman and junior Colleen Moore have shared time and space up front, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. The three-forward alignment helped the Crimson outshoot the high-powered BC air attack, 22-17, on Wednesday.

"It's something that we could switch in the middle of a game," McCarthy said. "It's just a matter of whatever's working at the time."

Totman and Yenne have contributed 19 and 18 points, respectively. Moore has 7 goals and 4 assists.

Harvard will also host Davidson on Sunday as part of a tournament which traditionally features two local teams and two top-caliber teams from outside the area.

The Wildcats have an impressive 9-3 record, and are ranked No. 10 in the South region. They recently had a two-game winning streak snapped by Georgia Southern, but are still enjoying one of their best starts in recent years.

"They're really good within their region," Stewart said. "They play good teams well, and we'll have to play well to beat them."

Sophomore forward Heather Maloney leads Davidson with 13 goals and 6 assists in twelve games, while freshman forward Leigh Anne Hoskins has 11 goals. Wildcat goalie Winnie Corrigan boasts a 1.11 goals-against average.

This will be the sixth season of the Harvard Invitational. The Crimson has taken first on four occasions, including the last three years and a 1994 co-championship with Boston College.

Vermont will round out the four-team field in this year's edition.