Although the schedule will show that the Harvard women’s soccer team played only a single game yesterday afternoon—a 3-1 win over New Hampshire on Ohiri Field—the Crimson players think otherwise.

Harvard (4-3-3, 1-0-1 Ivy) tested out a new strategy against the Wildcats (3-6-3, 1-0-1 America East), dividing the game into intervals of 20 minutes and attempting to outplay New Hampshire in each one.

“We tried to get the first goal, the first tackle and the first corner in each segment,” junior forward Emily Colvin said. “We’re hoping that it will help us score more goals.”

It certainly didn’t hurt, as the Crimson equaled its most prolific goal output this season.

“[The strategy] worked well in the first half, but not quite as well in the second half,” junior Alisha Moran said.

Only three of Harvard’s 15 second-half shots were on net, compared with 10 of 16 in the first half. The Wildcats only took three shots all game.

Initially frustrated by wasted chances early in the game, the Crimson finally broke through the New Hampshire defense. After a nifty give-and-go between freshman back Laura Odorczyk and senior forward Alisa Sato, senior midfielder Katie Westfall collected the ball in the box and deposited it into the gaping net. It was Westfall’s first tally this year after she finished tied for second on the squad last year with five goals.

Harvard soon struck again for an insurance goal. After gaining a corner kick for the Crimson with a nice defensive effort in the offensive zone, sophomore midfielder Rebecca Mildrew headed Westfall’s cross low into the net. The goal was the first of Mildrew’s college career.

“[Scoring your] first goal is great, because it’s like you’re opening the door,” Moran said. “You just start the faucet and let the water flow.”

Moran accounted for Harvard’s third goal, her team-leading sixth of the year. She took a corner kick from freshman Becky Junkermeier and headed it just under the crossbar to push the margin to three.

Contrary to what its success on corners might indicate, the team had not been specifically focusing on them in practice.

“We scored a lot of corner goals last year,” Colvin said. “Hopefully this is the start of something.”

New Hampshire struck back almost immediately after the third goal as sophomore goalkeeper Maja Agustsdottir deflected a cross away from her goal only to have it ricochet off her own defender back into the net.

Agustsdottir had replaced fellow sophomore Katie Shields at halftime.

Shields didn’t face a single shot as she improved upon her already-impressive numbers. She has now allowed just 4 goals in 825 minutes of action this year.