Senior midfielder Shelley Maasdorp, shown here in earlier action, scored two goals in Harvard’s 2-1 win over Northwestern on Friday. She added one more tally—her team-leading eighth of the season—on Saturday in the Crimson’s 4-2 loss to Michigan.

At this point, the Harvard field hockey team may come off as “numerophobic.”

After starting off its road trip to Ann Arbor, Mich. by edging Northwestern (6-6) 2-1 on Friday, the Crimson’s third game against a ranked opponent brought its third loss.

No. 8 Michigan (9-3) surged past No. 17 Harvard (6-3) by a score of 4-2 yesterday afternoon.

“Our hugest challenge as a team is breaking out of the mentality that teams should, in theory, beat us,” junior midfielder Jen McDavitt said. “We have a lot of underdog fire, but we need to forget who they are. We can be a comeback team, and we have been like against Brown last week, as long as we think we can do it.”

MICHIGAN 4, HARVARD 2

Harvard jumped out to a 2-1 lead less than midway through the first half, but could not find a way to cage the Wolverines, allowing three unanswered goals over the next 25 minutes.

The hosts helped themselves first as Adrienne Hortillosa scored the first of her two goals just under seven minutes into the game, flipping a shot off a penalty corner up and under the right post.

The Crimson, however, would not be content to let Michigan do as it pleased.

A little over four minutes later, captain midfielder Kate Gannon sent a free hit from outside the circle into the fray before the cage. Sophomore forward Gretchen Fuller came up with the loose ball and knew exactly what to do with it, sneaking it inside the right bar for her fifth goal of the year.

“Gretchen’s score was crucial,” McDavitt said. “It immediately gave us that boost we needed. When they initially scored we were a little bit nervous, but the question had been if we could run with them for the next 60 minutes.”

Striking while the iron was hot, Harvard then took the lead about 90 seconds later.

On the Crimson’s first penalty corner of the game, Gannon directed the insertion to the top of the arc to McDavitt who settled the ball. Senior midfielder Shelley Maasdorp lowered the boom, ripping a shot that tore past Wolverine goalie Beth Riley and into the lower half of the right side of the cage at the 12:42 mark. It was Maasdorp’s third goal in two days and eighth of the year, tops on the squad.

“It’s clear to anyone that Shelley is a phenomenal player,” McDavitt said. “We just look for her on the field, and that may be a lot of pressure, but she’s up to it and thrives on it. There are few players that can single-handedly influence a game as greatly as she can.”

The Harvard lead would be short-lived, however, as Michigan got the equalizer at 16:08 when Kate Morris redirected Eleanor Martin’s crossing pass from the left side past Crimson senior keeper Aliaa Remtilla.

The teams played out the rest of the half with no score, and went to halftime stuck at 2-2.