The Harvard women's soccer team suffered its worst loss ever yesterday, a 5-0 pounding at the hands of the University of Massachusetts--the country's top-ranked squad--at Soldiers Field.

Remember the guy in the chef's hat on Sesame Street, who would walk up the stairs singing, "Five, five, five, five, let's sing a song of five... How many is five?"

To the Crimson, now 4-6-3, five is quite a few.

Not since the 1983 season have the booters yielded five goals in one contest--and in that game, they responded with three of their own against Brown. And through its 12 previous games this season, the squad had only allowed a total of eight tallies.

To the Minutemen, now 13-0, five is just another day's work.

UMass, which last season knocked Harvard out of post-season play with a 1-0 victory in the NCAA quarterfinals, recruited four new freshman starters this year and, seemingly, can do no wrong.

The Minutemen have averaged four-and-a-half goals per game, including victories of: 4-0 over New Hampshire College (ranked 17th nationally), 3-1 over Rutgers (13th), 1-0 over UConn (11th), 6-0 over Brown (eighth) and 2-0 over the University of North Carolina (second).

So the Crimson is not alone.

So five is not all that amazing.

That didn't make the loss any easier to take for Harvard, which now is virtually out of contention for a bid to the NCAA tourney.

Only 14 squads from across the country participate in the NCAAs--and the Crimson was ranked only 20th before yesterday's loss.

"What we're shooting for is to do real well in the Ivy League," Harvard Coach Bob Scalise said. "As for the playoffs now, whatever happens will happen."

What happened yesterday, however, was best summed up in one image--that of Minuteman forward Kristen Bowsher lying sprawled on the grass, with Crimson defenders Brigitte Duffy and Lori Barry on top of her.

Bowsher had been blocked, knocked and toppled--and had still managed to unleash a blast into the upper reaches of the net from just outside of the box.

Harvard could have had twice or even three times as many people on the field as UMass all afternoon--and still been unable to prevent the visitors' five perfectly-placed shots from zipping past goalie Tracee Whitley.