With the game tied, Harvard kept the pressure up, mounting an offense of penalty corners, long corners and free hits.
Just five minutes after its first goal, Harvard took its first lead off of another penalty corner, its ninth of the game. A Yale defender stopped the Crimson’s first shot, but senior forward Eliza Dick scooped up the rebound and sent the ball into the net for her second goal in as many games.
“Those two goals on corners fired us up and got us going,” Pell said. “That was definitely crucial for us.”
But Harvard’s lead was short-lived, as Yale tied the game again with 18:26 left. Senior Tovia Martirosian broke into the Crimson circle and took a long shot from the left side of the circle which seemed to slip by Harvard’s defense into goal.
Yale kept the pressure on Harvard’s defense by forcing free hits into the circle. But the Crimson’s fortune turned when freshman midfielder Shelley Maasdorp broke free of the Eli defenders towards the goal. Nesberg came out of goal and collided with Massdorp, sending her into a painful flip.
With Nesberg’s foul, Harvard was awarded the second penalty stroke of the day. Junior back Katie Scott sent a flick just wide of the top right corner of the goal, leaving the score tied with nine minutes left in the game.
But it was not to remain so. Seniors Sarah Luskin and Heather Hussey combined to bring the ball up into the Elis’ end. Their work in the midfield ultimately set up Pell’s game-winner.
Harvard had to fight out the final minutes of the game it its own end, with tensions high as Yale took a penalty corner with 26 seconds remaining. But the Crimson defense stood fast and held on for the win.
The Crimson had been struggling to utilize its penalty corners this year. Scoring two goals off of corners not only gave Harvard the lead but also revealed that the team is coming together in composure and command.
“There’s a new corner battery and it takes time, it takes precision,” Caples said. “Each piece of the corner is really important. We now have enough repetition where we’re practicing more with pressure. We’re creating good opportunities off of it and if we’re going to score off of a straight shot or a rebound on a corner, we’ll take it either way.”
In the past, the Elis have not posed too much of a threat for the Crimson, and with only four returning seniors this year, Yale rose to the occasion.
“This is a typical Ivy League battle,” Caples said. “It was a very different game than we had Wednesday, certainly, but it was a battle and that’s just what you see on Saturday, regardless of team records.”
The Crimson goes on the road this weekend to face No.6 Michigan State and No. 4 Michigan in what should be a telling pair of games in terms of how Harvard stands on a national level.