A Season of Hex, Sighs and Videotape

Lately, Harvard's women soccer players have been abusing their mental VCR's.

When their minds wander, they pop in the two-hour tape marked "September 29: Harvard vs. Brown."

They fast-forward through 90 minutes of regulation, which ended in a 1-1 deadlock. They keep going through 26 minutes of scoreless overtime.

Then they hit play. They groan as a corner kick flies into the middle of the penalty box. They cringe as Brown halfback Suzanne Bailey nails a header towards the far post. They shudder as Crimson back Amy Weinstein dashes across the goal in a desperate save attempt. They watch in horror as the ball trickles across the line.

Then they rewind it and play it back again. And again. Because if Weinstein had miraculously cleared the ball off the line, and the Crimson had held on for the final four minutes to tie the Bruins, Harvard (6-7-1 overall, 5-1 Ivy) would have won the Ivy League title. Instead, the Bruins (5-0-1 Ivy) nabbed their eighth straight crown.

"If I had been a foot over to the right, I could have saved it," Weinstein said.

Regrets over the Brown game are nothing new for the star-crossed Crimson. The Bruins' hex over the Crimson has endured since Harvard's 1981 title season.

Parts Is Parts

But Coach Tim Wheaton's squad did make its finest Ivy showing since 1981 this year. As Harvard goaltender Beth Reilly pointed out, the season can be divided into three parts.

Part One was pure euphoria for the Crimson. In the season opener, Robin Johnston scored four goals as Harvard blew away Columbia. Three days later, Johnston scored again to pace a 1-0 defeat of New Hampshire.

The Crimson was undefeated. Johnston was on a 35-goal pace. Reilly had two shutouts in two games. This couldn't last.

It didn't After the UNH victory. The Crimson began a six-game slide, beginning with a tough loss to fourth-ranked William & Mary and an inexplicable tie with Holy Cross.

"That tie to Holy Cross made it really tough to bounce back," Reilly said. "After that, I think we started to think about not being able to score."

Part Two continued with the painful defeat at Brown, followed by losses to B.C., Vermont and UConn.

"We hit a tough part of our season, where we were playing well, but losing close games," Reilly said. "You can take that a couple times, but it gets frustrating. We reached a point where a lot of us wouldn't have minded if the season had ended."

But the Crimson still had six games left to play, including its final four Ivy matchups. It was time for Part Three, Harvard's resurrection.

The Crimson began its turnaround by edging Cornell, 1-0, on a leaping header by daredevil midfielder Tory Fair. Harvard then played its best soccer of the season in a thrilling 2-1 victory over Dartmouth.

Harvard closed out its season with impressive Ivy victories over Yale and Princeton to clinch second place.

"We ended the season on a great note," Weinstein said. "We just didn't win those close games. It's too bad we needed this season to wake us up, but I hope it will help us for next year."

Looking to 1990

Next year, 10 returning starters will lead the Crimson in its quest to break Brown's stranglehold on the Ivy title. But graduation will deprive the Crimson of Co-Captains Jen Gifford and Andrea Montalbano.

Harvard is already accustomed to playing without Gifford, who missed all but one game of the season with a knee injury.

Replacing Montalbano, a strong candidate for Ivy Player of the Year, will be another story. The senior sweeper anchored the defense all season, and often sparked the offense with aggressive jaunts upfield.

Unless the earth is destroyed before All-Ivy selections can be made next week, she will be named to the first team for the fourth straight year.

"I'm kind of sad it ended for me when we all started clicking," Montalbano said. "I think they'll do all right without me."

Her teammates are already trying to make sure that next year they do better than "all right."

"In the past, players have wanted to take some time off after the season, but this year, we all wanted to start playing right away," Reilly said. "We do expect to win next year. We don't want to look back and say we should have done something differently."

Just four minutes separated the Crimson from success in 1989. In 1990, their video highlights may feature a celebration.