After recording his first career hat trick in his team’s 16-7 loss to Albany on Tuesday, Murphy Vandervelde approached Saturday night’s matchup with an edge.

“Looking forward, we’ve got Duke on Saturday, and we’re going to really stick it to them,” Vandervelde said Tuesday. “This was a wakeup call.”

On Saturday, the sophomore midfielder backed up those words with yet another three-goal performance.

Vandervelde struck thrice on the man-up with machine-like efficiency. Each power-play goal followed a similar pattern: Harvard cycled the ball around the Duke defense before kicking it out to the wing for Vandervelde, who delivered three accurate rips from long range.

The sophomore’s first goal came with 2:25 left in the third quarter to tie things at seven.

His second and third goals provided the Crimson’s last two leads of the game early in the fourth. Harvard finished the night 3-for-4 on the man-up.

“He’s got a very good form, and he’s got a very heavy shot,” Wojcik said of Vandervelde. “We did a really good job setting his shot up on the extra man. Pete Schwartz and Devin Dwyer did a really good job getting the ball.”

Before the Crimson’s 9-6 win at Dartmouth on March 23, Vandervelde had zero career collegiate goals to his name. Three games later, the sophomore midfielder has seven. As Harvard prepares to host No. 3 Cornell next Saturday, Wojcik will have a new offensive weapon at his disposal.

“I was really happy to see how well and confident Murphy was shooting the ball,” Wojcik said. “When he gets his hands free, he can really bring it.”

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at mledecky@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mdledecky.