Senior forward ELIZA DICK (8) leaps in the air in celebration after scoring to put Harvard ahead 2-1 against Yale on Saturday. Dick is the only Crimson player to have scored in back-to-back games this year.

Field Hockey Perseveres Over Yale

By JESSICA T. LEE

Special to the Crimson

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Coming off of an incredible win against UMass last Wednesday, the Harvard field hockey team may have expected a more comfortable game against Ivy-rival Yale. Instead, it got a fight to the end.

Amidst the drama of penalty corners, free hits galore, shots on both sides and even a couple of penalty strokes, Harvard (4-2, 2-0 Ivy) earned a 3-2 win over Yale (2-4, 0-2) on Saturday at Johnson Field.

With 3:34 left in the game, junior forward Philomena Gambale sent the ball into the circle, where sophomore forward Mina Pell gathered it and trickled a shot past Yale’s sophomore goalkeeper Krissy Nesberg for the game-winner.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Pell said. “It went in pretty slowly, but a goal’s a goal.”

The goal was just what the Crimson needed at the end of an up-and-down game. Harvard’s sleepy play in the first half led to scoring opportunities gone awry and a 1-0 Yale lead at the half.

The Crimson was fortunate to be down by only a goal, given that Yale was awarded a penalty stroke with 10:10 left in the half after Harvard goalkeeper Katie Zacarian was called for a foul. Yale senior Erin Tennyson took the stroke to the bottom left corner of the cage, but Zacarian made the diving save.

Four minutes later, Yale scored the half’s lone goal. On an Eli free hit aimed straight on goal, Zacarian stopped the initial shot and cleared the ball to the right. Junior Suzanne Anthony put the rebound past Harvard’s defense into the left side of goal.

“Yale is a much improved team,” said Harvard Coach Sue Caples. “They have good athletes out there and they took it to us the first half. They beat us to the 50-50 balls. I felt that we were outworked in the first half.”

The second half was a new game, with the both teams playing with an intensity that left the referees blowing their whistles multiple times so they could be heard over the wind and the concentration of the players.

“I think we made some good adjustments in the second half in our positioning on the ball, what our forwards were trying to do,” Caples said. “I think that we dug down and we started to move a little bit. We weren’t waiting or hesitating, we weren’t conceding and we did all those things in the first half.”

Harvard started to move right from the whistle, and the Crimson was awarded its sixth penalty corner at 31:32 for its efforts. Gambale knotted the game with a high shot to the left side of the goal, one of the Crimson’s first successful corners of the year.