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The first time Harvard field hockey coach Tjerk van Herwaarden saw junior Marissa Balleza play, he was still an assistant coach at the University of Maryland and she was still just a freshman at Severna Park High School—a half hour away from College Park.

From the moment she took the field, however, Herwaarden knew that he was watching a big-time talent.

Three years later, Herwaarden’s and Balleza’s paths crossed again as he found himself putting together his first recruiting class as head coach at Harvard. Remembering Balleza from his days in Maryland, Heerwaarden decided that he had to try to have her join him in Cambridge.

After a long tug-of-war with Cornell for Balleza’s signature, Heerwaarden got his wish, and along with it, a front row seat to see how the high school freshman he had identified so many years earlier would pan out at the college level.

The verdict came just a few months into Balleza’s freshman year, in a mid-week matchup late in October against crosstown rivals Northeastern. Balleza had started all season, making solid contributions to the team as a rotation player. With 4 minutes left and the score still tied 0-0, however, overtime seemed inevitable, and certainly no one was counting on a freshman to break the deadlock.

“The game was going back and forth, back and forth,” Herwaarden said. “No one could get any real chances and players were becoming frustrated.”

But Balleza, in a sequence that would be repeated many more times in her college career, managed to conjure up a goal from practically nothing. With a low, hard shot from the left side of the shooting circle, she buried the decisive point of the match.

From moment Balleza spun away in celebration that day, Herwaarden knew he was no longer watching a star in the waiting. He was watching a star.

“What makes Marissa so special is at she’s not the kind of player who scores the goals when the game’s already 4-0 or 6-0,” Herwaarden said. “She’s the kind of player who scores when you’re down, or when you’re tied, and no one else can seem to score.”

Balleza followed up her performance against the Huskies with three more goals in her last three games of the season and an assist of the game-winning goal in the Crimson’s overtime win over league foe Columbia in its final match.

GETTING A HEAD START

Players rarely develop into clutch performers by chance, and in Balleza’s case, there is a reason why no moment is ever too big for her.

From the moment she took up field hockey as a fourth grader, her time on the pitch has been filled with fierce competition from none other than her sister, Hannah, who is three years older. Off the pitch, the relationship has been anything but fierce, with Hannah providing the role of a loving mentor for Marissa.

“Hannah was the one who got me into field hockey, and once we both got started, we played with each other every day,” Marissa explained. “She’d get home from her high school practice and show me the new moves she had learned that day, and so every day, I was competing and learning with her.”