The Harvard field hockey team defeated Penn 3-0 at Jordan Field yesterday to conclude its season with a four-game winning streak.

The victory lifted Harvard (11-6, 5-2 Ivy) into a tie for second place against Dartmouth (13-4, 5-2) in the Ivy standings while Penn (6-11, 4-3) finished in fourth place. Princeton (15-2, 7-0) won its eighth consecutive Ivy crown and an automatic NCAA berth.

Last season, the Crimson earned an at-large berth to the 16-team NCAA field on the strength of a 12-5, 6-1 Ivy campaign. With the Big Ten, Colonial and Mid-American Conferences each producing a deeper pool of tournament contenders this season, Harvard’s best bet to make the tournament was ultimately through the Ivy’s automatic berth, but those hopes effectively ended with a loss to Princeton on Oct. 20.

“We set some pretty high goals for ourselves and we didn’t achieve all of them, but we had very successful season,” said Harvard Coach Sue Caples.

In recent years, Harvard had accepted a berth to the ECAC’s four-team field hockey tournament when it fell short of NCAAs. This year, however, Harvard decided that it would pass up on any ECAC bid.

“[Making NCAAs] was a tremendous experience a year ago,” Caples said. “That was a wonderful moment in [the player’s] careers here. They’ll remember that. We’ve moved to the next level. And that’s our focus, getting back there.”

So after choosing to make yesterday’s Penn game the final game of the season, Harvard made it one of its best games of the season.

“We played a complete game today,” Caples said. “We talked about playing for 70 minutes. It’s a very simple concept but very difficult to do.”

Senior back Katie Turck gave the Crimson all the scoring it would need just 7:15 into the game when she won a scramble for the ball off a shot from freshman Shelley Maasdorp on a penalty corner.

“[The seniors] all wanted to score, but I’m glad one of us did,” said captain Jane Park.

Turck, the regular pusher on the penalty corner battery, scored her first goal of the season in the final game of her career. It was the second year in a row that Turck had scored the game-winner against Penn, as two of her six goals last season came in a 3-2 come-from-behind win.

“Obviously it’s a great way to finish off my career,” said Turck of her final goal. “Its sometimes a scramble to put the ball in the net, but it was a great time to finish it off.

One goal was more than enough offense for a defense that kept Penn far away from striking distance all afternoon. The Crimson backfield, which besides Turck included All-Ivy junior Katie Scott and seniors Sarah Luskin and Heather Hussey, helped limit Penn to just three shots on goal for the game and none in the second half.

“In the second half, there were no shots on goal. It was amazing,” Park said. “Our transition was great. We had nice stick passing and our defense just wasn’t letting anything through.”

The Crimson managed to keep the ball out of its end for nearly the entire game as the team consistently positioned itself well and made good decisions with the ball.