The team responded to the challenge. The Crimson earned its first penalty corner in three halves soon after halftime and never looked back.
“We knew we weren’t playing to our potential,” Gannon said. “We just made the concious decsision to turn it around. Sue gave us a talk at halftime. That got us going, and I think we all pushed each other on the field. It makes a big difference.”
The Huskies could not mount much more than an occasional counterattack in the second half. When they did, the Crimson backfield of seniors Katie Turck, Sarah Luskin, junior Katie Scott and Hussey—who stepped up to replace injured senior Natalia Berry—promptly shut them down.
The Crimson blamed an overly conservative playing style for its first half struggles.
“We dug ourselves a hole because we were so defensive-minded,” Caples said.
“We were back on our heels and kind of let it happen in the first half,” Gannon added. “We definitely came out much more attacking in the second half and that made all the difference.”
One of the few areas where Harvard struggled in the second half was on penalty corners. The poor conditions of the Northeastern turf, which included a giant patch-up job in the midfield, contributed to the Crimson’s prompt turnovers on each corner.
The Huskies, however, were used to the conditions and scored their only goal on a corner. Freshman Liane Dixon netted the goal on a third chance after Harvard sophomore keeper Katie Zacarian was taken out of the play.
Northeastern could easily have scored a few more goals in the first half as its speedy forwards managed a pair of breakways through the Harvard defense. But on both occassions Zacarian came out of the net and leveled the Northeastern attackers. In the second half, the Crimson defense prevented further breakaways.
“Northeastern has tremendous speed,” Caples said. “We did a better job controlling their speed by making some adjustments.”
The win over the Huskies gives Harvard its first win over a ranked opponent all season. The senior class finishes with a 3-1 career record against the traditional local power. Having lost close games at No. 2 Michigan and No. 6 Michigan St. last weekend, the Crimson managed to avoid resuming its Ivy schedule at Cornell on Sunday with a three-game losing streak.
Harvard will aim to play a complete game from the opening whistle against Cornell, as it did in its 5-0 home victory over the Big Red last season.
“We became more disciplined in the second half,” Caples said. “That’s the way we have to start games because then we’ll get our momentum going.”