HARVARD 4, HOLY CROSS 0

The Crimson got off to a great start in the first half, taking a 3-0 lead before finishing off the Crusaders.

“We had lots of preparations and pregame talks,” Bridget McGillivray said. “Our coaches had scouted out these teams beforehand, so we knew what to expect. We were definitely ready.”

The Crimson was led behind the strong play of goalie Cynthia Tassopoulos, who recorded four saves leading to the shutout.

Georgia McGillivray got Harvard on the board with her penalty corner goal nine and a half minutes into the contest.

Sophomore teammate Rachel Rosenfeld added to the lead by scoring off a pass from co-captain Carly Dickson.

The Crimson’s Jenkins deflected a shot into the goal making the score 3-0 with 1:17 left in the first half. The lead proved too much for Holy Cross to overcome.

“You get exposed by good teams,” Caples said. “And so we learned a lot about ourselves: things we will work on, but also the strengths, and we are pretty excited about what those are.”

Harvard continued to play well in the second half and completed the shut-out behind the work of Tassopoulos and an added goal from Bridget McGillivray.

“It is so awesome to win right from the start [of the season],” the younger McGillivray said. “We really need that boost of confidence. We are off to a strong start and we hope it carry it on.”

—Staff writer Cameron Dowd can be reached at camerondowd14@college.harvard.edu.