“[Kelly] made some great saves for us out there,” Caples said. “She was calm and composed.”

In the end, the Crimson kept it close as it gets.

“We weren’t intimidated. We tried to keep it simple,” captain midfielder Jen McDavitt said.

Her coach commended the effort.

“The biggest adjustment was the speed of execution, and we matched their intensity and played our own game,” Caples said. “We battled a very tough team, and managed to contain their strengths.”

Harvard will travel to face another nationally ranked opponent in No. 11 Connecticut this Wednesday at 4 p.m.

HARVARD 3, HOLY CROSS 0

Friday afternoon, the Crimson continued its unbeaten and unscored-upon streak, blanking Holy Cross (3-4) 3-0 in Worcester.

Senior midfielder Jane Sackovich scored what would end up being the winning goal with only 31 seconds left in the first half. She ripped the ball through a crowd in front of the cage and past Crusaders netminder Sony Kuhn, notching her first score of the season unassisted.

Sackovich struck again soon after the intermission, taking advantage of a Holy Cross defensive mistake and leveling another unassisted shot past Kuhn for a 2-0 lead 2:02 into the second period.

McDavitt gave the Crimson some insurance with her second goal of the season, an unassisted shot in front of the cage with 6:29 remaining in the game.

Harvard out-shot the Crusaders 10-3 and gained a 4-1 edge in penalty corners.

The Crimson defense maintained its sterling record, shutting out its fourth consecutive opponent. During the run, Harvard outscored opponents 9-0.

Knoche made two saves on the day. The freshman phenom gave way to sophomore Siobhan Connolly with a little under five minutes left in the contest. In her first action of her college career, Connolly made one save to preserve the shutout.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.