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."