“You see why they’re so successful—they defend so very well, and they’re great with the little counterattacks,” said Harvard coach Tim Wheaton. “So even though we might have had the ball a bunch, they had some very dangerous chances.”
In the final minutes of the second half, Harvard seemed to have a game-winner off a header from a corner kick, but the ball was stopped by the foot of Princeton defender Heather Deerin.
When the first overtime came around, Princeton gained new life out of nowhere and put Harvard through tense moments. The Tigers owned nearly all the scoring opportunities and a couple of corner kicks and free kicks in the Harvard net. On a setup off of a free kick, only the crossbar kept Princeton back Brea Griffiths from assuring a victory.
The Tigers finally ran out of chances in the second overtime. Momentum abruptly shifted again as Harvard kept the ball in the Tiger end in the minutes before the game-winner.
On one the best chances of the night, senior forward Joey Yenne beat several players to get upfield and seemed to have Princeton goalkeeper Jean Poster beat high with a shot from the 18, but Poster managed to barely tip it over the crossbar. The ensuing corner kick led to Sedgwick’s game-winning header.
Harvard’s longstanding road shutout streak had been maintained with strong defense and, even more so, outstanding goalkeeping.
This most recent result was no different. Though freshmen Katie Shields and Maja Agustdottir each finished the game with their bright-colored shirts covered in dirt, they handled every ball they called for cleanly, despite the poor field conditions and the pressure all around them.
The limited number of dangerous shots taken by Princeton was at the most basic level due to play of the Crimson backs—sophomore Liza Barber and juniors Laura Cozzolino and Caitlin Fisher, who battled the Tigers’ forwards and kept them from making dangerous counterattacks all evening.
The defensive result was a sharp improvement over the three easy scoring opportunities allowed in its loss to Yale earlier this month.
Harvard has since put more emphasis in practice on stepping up and putting pressure on the ball while maintaining support from behind. The results showed Saturday.
Princeton sophomore Esmeralda Negron, who had scored five game-winning goals this season, was limited to a single shot against Harvard. Fisher guarded her most of the game, and the two were grabbing, holding and fighting for position all evening.
“They’re a dirty team,” Fisher said, “and we just knew we had to be mentally prepared for it more than anything, because we knew it was more of a mental battle than [a] physical [one], really. I’m proud of our team because we didn’t let up. We didn’t let them get into our heads.”
Saturday’s was a win Harvard desperately needed in order to earn its seventh straight NCAA tournament berth. After losing to Yale, Harvard was set to play three ranked teams in a row between Princeton, No. 9 Connecticut and No. 23 Dartmouth.
Now, having taken out the first, the Crimson is eager to take on the second.
—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.