After a 3-0 season-opening victory over New Hampshire on Friday at Ohiri Field that included the triumphant return of co-captain Emily Stauffer to the lineup, the Harvard women's soccer team was sitting on top of the world. NEW HAMPSHIRE  0 HARVARD  3 PENN STATE  2 HARVARD  1

But red-hot Penn State roared into Cambridge and with a 2-1 win put a damper on an otherwise hopeful start to Harvard's 1998 campaign.

The Crimson became the third-straight ranked team to fall victim to the Nittany Lions, 2-1, in front of about 1,000 fans yesterday at Ohiri.

Harvard (1-1), ranked 19th, poured 19 shots on goal while limiting No. 16 Penn State (4-0) to just 13 shots, but Lion goalie Emily Oleksiuk's 11 saves kept the Crimson off the scoreboard for the last 77 minutes of the game.

"[Penn State] is a good defensive team and they've got a good goalkeeper." Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "We were a little unlucky in that we had some good chances but we couldn't put them away. We lost our composure a little bit, partly because it was only the second game of the year and we haven't played from behind yet."

Harvard jumped out to an early lead when forward Beth Zotter took a pass from co-captain Emily Stauffer and scored on a 20-yard shot. Co-captain Devon Bingham made the play possible by heading a goal kick to Stauffer from midfield to keep the Crimson attack going. Harvard continued to move the ball downfield efficiently throughout the game, but no more shots were successful.

"I think Harvard was better than we were today," Penn State Coach Pat Farmer said. "You don't expect young teams like ours to play through that and find a way to score some goals, but I'm really happy that we were able score."

"I think we played pretty well," fullback Gina Foster said. "There was a period of about 25 minutes where we were just totally on and we were going at them constantly and then the tide seemed to turn a little bit."

It turned with 16:35 left in the first half when Lion forward Courtney Lawson beat the Crimson to the ball at the edge of the goal box and evaded Harvard goalie Anne Browning on her way to the goal.

The rejuvenated Penn State squad quieted the Harvard offense for the rest of the half. With just 81 seconds left before intermission, Lion midfielder Erin Cochran gave Penn State the lead for good. Midfielder Kelly Convey and forward Carole Dutchka created the play by drawing Browning to the right side of the goal box to give Cochran an open shot in front of the net.

"[Penn State] definitely hustled to every ball and were right on top of us all HARVARD, 3-0 at Ohiri Field New Hampshire  0  0  --  0 Harvard  2  1  --  3

Scoring Har--Stauffer (unassisted) 3:31. Har--Foster (Stauffer) 14:50. Har--Miller (Stauffer) 54:03. Saves: UNH--Snellings 4, Springer 6; Har--Browning 3, Burney 2. PENN STATE, 2-1 at Ohiri Field Penn State  2  0  --  2 Harvard  1  0  --  1

Scoring Har--Zotter (Stauffer, Bingham) 12:13. PSU--Lawson (unassisted) 28:25. PSU--Cochran (Convey, Dutchka) 43:39. Saves: PSU--Oleksiuk 11; Har--Browning 9. season ago was voted the best keeper in theIvies and who posted an outstanding .793 savepercentage and 1.21 goals-against-average lastseason, is the back-up on this team. The starter,junior Anne Browning, is coming off a stellarseason in which she gave up just 0.64 goals pergame in 11 contests. The third-string goalie,senior Meredith Bagley, would start on many teams.

Browning and Burney split time between theposts last season, but Wheaton said Browning isthe starter for now.

"We have absolute faith in all ourgoalkeepers." Wheaton said.

An outstanding defense returns to help makeBrowning's job as easy as possible.

Junior sweeper Jessica Larson and junior backGina Foster return from All-Ivy seasons--Fosterwas actually sixth on the team in scoring,and Wheaton welcomes back a reasonably healthyJaime Chu, who suffered season-ending kneeinjuries in each of the last two years.

"I wouldn't say I'm 100 percent yet," Chu said."I definitely need to play a little bit more toget my touch on the ball. [But] I'm psyched to beback."

Senior backs Brynne Zuccaro and Ashley Marynickare veterans who should also receive ample playingtime.