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Harvard women’s soccer (5-5-3, 3-2-1 Ivy) fell 2-1 to Penn (5-4-5, 1-3-2 Ivy) on Saturday, coming two weeks before the Ivy League Tournament. The Crimson now sit at number three in the Ivy League standings with just one more week to clinch a top four spot and qualify for the conference tournament.

On top of being one of the last games in the regular season, the game was also senior day for the Crimson and took place on family weekend. With the stands full of loved ones, senior goalkeeper Denver Tolson, defender August Hunter, forward Audrey Francois, midfielder Vanessa Frelih, and goalkeeper Rhiannon Stewart were celebrated at the start of the game.

From the first few minutes of the game, this much was obvious: Harvard dominated the possession of the ball. The Crimson held control for the vast majority of the first 45 minutes. In the first ten minutes, Harvard almost exclusively held possession. The team moved the ball around well, but was not able to successfully capitalize off of long possessions. Whenever the Quakers did get control, it seemed all they were able to do was clear and reset on defense for the next Crimson possession.

The Crimson had a few great looks in the first few minutes, and it felt like it was only a matter of time before its continued possession resulted in a goal. In the 15th minute, junior midfielder Anya Van Den Einde delivered two clean corners in sequence. The first headed over the goal and the second was caught by Penn’s senior keeper Annabelle Austin. Again, in the 24th minute junior striker Anna Rayhill received a cross and had a pretty shot on goal from the right side, which was again deflected by Austin.

Suddenly, after the Crimson offense had dominated possession throughout the first 25 minutes of the game, Quaker junior forward Abbey Cook had a break away run, beating the Harvard defender and taking the ball the length of the field and into the goal. It was Penn’s first attempted shot of the game, and the Quakers went up 1-0.

After the shocking goal, the Crimson continued to maintain possession, but struggled to turn it into points. Francois had a few steals deep within Quaker territory which gave the Crimson a few great looks, and sophomore forward Sarah Lloyd had one gorgeous center that made the crowd groan, but still the Crimson remained scoreless into half.

The sun came out after halftime and the Crimson felt warmed up too.

Three minutes into the second half the Crimson set up an offense and Francois sent a ball to the bottom right, only to be blocked by the keeper. The subsequent corner was headed backwards by junior midfielder Jasemine Leshnick. Caught by the Penn keeper.

Finally, after another long possession by Harvard in enemy territory, the Crimson had managed to get the Quaker defense overextended to the left. Rayhill, on the right side of the box, received a pass with a one-on-one defender. She made her move to the right and sent the ball into the back left for a Harvard goal, equalizing the score at 1-1.

With some momentum on their side, Rayhill had a chance to double down just three minutes later. The Crimson defense stole possession and passed Rayhill the ball around midfield. Rayhill beat her defender, dribbled the ball the length of the field, and sent it just over the crossbar.

Around the 70th minute the tides turned once again. Penn had a rare breakout offensive drive which ended in a center from Quaker junior Magali Capdevila. The pass appeared to be too far out in front of the intended recipient, forward Karly Murless, which drew Stewart out of the goal to cover it. Murless ended up beating Stewart to the ball though and scooped it 20 meters into the air. In what seemed to be a demonstration of parabolic motion, the ball came down into the empty net, coming within inches of the crossbar. After another sudden goal Penn was up again, 2-1.

Trying to dig itself out of the deficit, the Crimson maintained the theme of controlling possessions. The team spread the people taking shots on goal but Austin proved to be an iron wall of a goalie.

Even in the final minute of the game, the Crimson still felt like it was in possession. With forty seconds to go sophomore forward Lauren Muniz headed a corner toward the goal. Again though, Austin caught the ball and the Quakers had achieved their first league victory.

Harvard ended the game with a 24-4 shot differential and dominated possession throughout, but a few improbable goals and ten saves by the Quaker goalie gave the win to Penn.

The Crimson was down two of its primary offensive pieces in freshmen midfielder Elsa Santos Lopez (who was playing for the Spanish National team this weekend) and junior forward Ólöf Kristinsdóttir (out for a minor injury she sustained at practice on Wednesday). Both are expected to return for next week’s game against Columbia (5-6-3, 3-2-1 Ivy).

With this loss, the Crimson remained third in the Ivy League, with only the top four teams competing in the Ivy League the championship tournament on Nov. 6th-10th. The Crimson play at Columbia next Saturday for its final game of the regular season. Harvard and Columbia have identical league records, with the Crimson having a slightly better out-of-conference record. A win or a tie would guarantee either team a spot in the championship tournament. A loss would leave its fate in the control of outside teams.

The Harvard-Columbia game will be live on ESPN+ 2pm on Nov. 1st.

– Staff writer Chandler Piggé can be reached at chandler.pigge@thecrimson.com

– Staff writer Jake C. Swanson can be reached at jake.swanson@thecrimson.co