The Harvard women's soccer team knew that luck would have to be on its side going into the rough home stretch of its schedule. After all, a little luck was the only thing that separated the Crimson from the No. 13 Hartford Hawks yesterday, in a 2-1 loss.

After its victory over Ivy League rival Princeton, the Crimson (10-6, 4-2 Ivy) was set to play four nationally ranked teams in two weeks. The team was not going to be allowed to coast into the NCAA Tournament.

"We came into the week wanting to take the league game from Dartmouth," said co-captain Brooke McCarthy. "A win against any of the other three non-Ivy teams would have been great for our NCAA standing."

The Crimson lost its first three games going into yesterday's make-up game against the Hawks (16-2), ranked first in the Northeast region.

The loss to the Hawks was Harvard's fourth in a row, its longest losing streak since 1989. The recent skid will make for nervous times when the NCAA Tournament seedings are announced on November 5th. An Ivy League title is all but out of reach.

The Crimson played a controlling game for the full 90 minutes, but came up short. Its strong team play met with some unlucky results.

"We played a very good, intense game today, " McCarthy said. "Coach Wheaton was happy about our play as a team. It came down to one unlucky bounce."

The fatal bounce enabled Hawk sophomore Anika Michaels to score the game-winning goal in the 87th minute. Hartford forward Siv Skard dribbled by two Crimson defenders and blasted the ball by Crimson goalie Cheryl Gunther, striking the post. The ball then took a Hawk bounce, ricocheting into the possession of Michaels. She put it by Gunther, who had made 3 saves on the day, for the game winner.