Mother Nature had some fun with the Harvard women's soccer team yesterday afternoon in Worcester, but it was the Crimson who had the last laugh.
On a day in which the wind gusted to over 30 miles per hour, Harvard (9-3-2, 5-0-1) pulled out a 4-2 victory over Holy Cross.
"It was very messy out there," freshman forward Emily Stauffer said. "We wanted to win and play well, but the weather was really bad."
How bad were the elements?
Well, put it this way: the weather scored as many goals as the Crusaders did.
The wind was so bad that it blew one of the goals off the ground two separate times (there are no official stats for the atmosphere, but who cares). Luckily for the players, the goal blew off backwards behind the field, so nobody got hit by the flying frames.
Unluckily for Harvard, the wind single-handedly led to the two Holy Cross goals, which tied the game at 1-1 and 2-2, respectively.
The Crusaders' first tally blew in off a corner kick. Their second strike came off a direct kick from 30 yards out, as the ball made a wind-aided arc over the outstretched hand of freshman goalie Dana Krein and inside the crossbar.
However, the wind did nothing to prevent senior Libby Eynon from winning the game with 12 minutes to go.
Eynon, a left-footed striker, was standing to the left of the Crusader goal when she got the ball facing the endline. Eynon spun around and punched it by the surprised goalie with her left foot to break a 2-2 tie.
"That was a classic Libby goal," senior forward Sara Simmons said. "The goalie wasn't expecting that type of shot."
Freshman Kristen Bowes would ice (no pun intended) the match in the final minute when she headed in a corner taken by freshman Emily Stauffer to provide the final score of 4-2.
The game wasn't really as close as the score might indicate, because Harvard dominated the action of the match, aside from the two wacky Holy Cross goals.
Once the Crimson was able to adjust to the wind, it generated several offensive chances. The players started making smart passes along the ground so that the wind wouldn't sail the ball past their intended targets.
"It was so windy out there," freshman Keren Gudeman said. "We had to focus on keeping the ball on the ground, since it was so easy to misjudge the ball [when it was in the air]."
Harvard scored the first goal of the match, as Stauffer drilled a bullet through the Crusader goalie's hands from six yards out. However, the Crusaders got their first goal shortly later, and the teams would go into the intermission knotted at 1-1.
Junior defender and Ivy League Co-Player of the Week Sara Noonan scored her second goal in as many games when she took junior Susie DeLellis's break-out pass and went in all alone on the Crusader goalie. The goalie had no chance to stop Noonan's shot, and Harvard seized a 2-1 edge.
"Sara Noonan had been playing so well," Simmons said. "She gets up and down the field all the time."
Even though the Crusaders would tie the game at 2-2 shortly after Noonan's score, they never really contended for the go-ahead goal, and Harvard was able to achieve the win.
Brownout?
Now all that remains of the women's soccer regular season is one game--Saturday morning at 11:00 against Brown at Ohiri Field.
The Bears hold a half-game lead over the Crimson, so the winner of the upcoming match will be the Ivy League Champions. Should the teams tie, Brown would also clinch the title.
The winner of the game also holds a good chance of going to the NCAA tournament, which would start the following week. But for now, the only thing on the players' minds is beating Brown.
"After the Dartmouth game [a 2-1 Harvard win last Saturday], I've been so psyched," Bowes said.
The Bears have had a very successful campaign outside the Ivies as well, as they defeated Duke--a top-five team--two weeks ago.
The Crimson will have to keep its cool and not overreact to the physical, foul-filled style that the Bears employ. Actually, the players believe that aggressive style will help Harvard rather than hinder it.
"That will keep up our intensity," Gudeman said.
In any event, the game gives Harvard a chance to do something it hasn't done since 1981--win the Ivies.
"I've never had this big an opportunity," Simmons said. "People are nervous, but I can't ever remember being as excited for a game as I am [for Saturday]."
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