The Harvard field hockey team took a swig of mouthwash yesterday, in the form of a 1-0 defeat of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.

The game was the Crimson's last of 1992, and the victory helps slightly sweeten the sour taste of this season, boosting the Crimson to 4-10-2 overall, 1-3-2 Ivy.

Against the Wildcats, Harvard was able to get the lead and keep it, something that proved more difficult for the Crimson this season than spelling for Dan Quayle.

"We passed really well today, and we were able to limit their corners and scoring opportunities," sophomore Meg Colligan said. "Our defense kept us in the game and we concentrated well."

Harvard limited UNH to five penalty corners and freshman netminder Jessica Milhollin marked nine saves.

"People came ready to play," Harvard Coach Sue Caples said. "We really hung in there defensively."

But the high point of the game was Colligan's goal 24:03 into the second half, and it was all Harvard needed to bury the Wildcats.

Colligan scored off a penalty corner when she lifted the ball over the defense and past UNH goalie Jenn Bouchie.

"It was a perfect shot," Caples said. For a team that has had as much trouble scoring lately as the Crimson, Colligan's score must have seemed as sweet as the Forbidden Fruit.

But what of the sour season?

The Crimson just could not recover from the loss of a group of four starting seniors that led the team in 1991, and Harvard fell victim to its own inexperience. That inexperience translated directly into defeat.

Harvard dropped like a piano falling out of a ten-story building this year, plummeting from last season's first place finish in the Ivies to rock bottom--tied for the sixth position with Cornell.

Despite some solid wins over Rhode Island, Yale, Holy Cross, and UNH, the Crimson consistently was outthought and outplayed by its opponents.

Even when Harvard got close against powerful teams, like Providence and Princeton, it could not reach the proverbial cigar.

"I think that people on the team this year waited for someone to show them the way," Caples said. "It's taken us a whole season to just start getting on track in terms of combinations."