W. Soccer Stuns Hartford in NCAAs, Advances to Sweet 16

WEST HARTFORD, Conn.--Just one week after it thought its season was finished, the Harvard women's soccer team has advanced all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Making the most of its improbable selection to the tournament field, the Crimson (12-7, 4-3 Ivy) continued its remarkable postseason run on Saturday with a stunning 3-0 second-round upset over No. 19 Hartford at Al-Marzook Field.

With Harvard clinging to a 1-0 lead late in the second half, Hawks midfielder Sandra Kayulu was called for a hand-ball in the box, setting up a penalty kick for senior midfielder Meredith Stewart, who found the back of the net to give Harvard a two-goal advantage.

Sophomore forward Joey Yenne netted a breakaway goal three minutes later to seal the win for the Crimson.

"We knew we could come out there and play our best game and I think we did," Yenne said. "The score really reflects it."

The victory moves the Crimson into the third round of the tournament for a showdown this weekend with No. 1 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. It will be the two teams' first-ever meeting.

Before Saturday, the Crimson had been winless in its previous five meetings with Hartford (17-3), including a 2-1 loss suffered during the regular season on Oct. 31.

"This was a team we wanted again," Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "We were very excited with the opportunity to play them, and we made a few tactical adjustments which I think really paid off today."

In a game that was much closer and tenser than the final score would indicate, the Crimson spent much of the contest protecting an early goal by senior forward Ashley Mattison.

The strike came in the 11th minute, when freshman midfielder Katie Westfall--playing in her first game since being diagnosed with the chicken pox early last week--unleashed a high shot from 35 yards out. Hartford goalkeeper Anne Lise Nilssen tipped the ball upwards and off the crossbar. As the ball bounced out in front of the goal, Mattison lunged forward, sacrificing her body and heading the ball into the net.

"If I had gone with my foot she would have gotten a piece of it, so I just dove at it and I got there just before she did," Mattison said. "We collided, but it was in the net."

Mattison, who tallied both of Harvard's goals in its first-round win over Quinnipiac on Wednesday, was playing in her first game without a cast on her left hand. She had broken the hand in the Crimson's regular-season finale against Columbia.

"What a brave goal by Ashley Mattison," Wheaton said. "It had to be headed and she did it."

Even after taking the lead, the Crimson remained on the offensive for a short time in the first half, but had all of its attempts thwarted.

Sophomore midfielder Orly Ripmaster and Stewart both saw headers go wide of the net, and Yenne and Westfall had quality shots stopped by Nilssen, who made three saves to keep the Crimson lead at one.

In the second half, Harvard had fewer opportunities on offense as the Hawks backed the Crimson into its end and mounted a prolonged challenge on the Harvard defense.

"I think we got a little too nervous about not making a mistake," Wheaton said. "That's counterproductive sometimes."

The Hawks battled viciously to pull off a tie, but, with so much at stake in the game, Harvard played just as physically as Hartford. The officials called 28 fouls in the game.

"We answered their toughness with a bit of our own," Yenne said. "We had a goal today: we wanted to win. And I think our play and our aggressiveness really showed it out there on the field."

At no time was that aggressiveness more evident than in the 52nd minute, when freshman back Kathleen Ferguson--making her second postseason start after turning in an incredible effort against Quinnipiac--collided with a Hartford forward and suffered a concussion. Ferguson lay on the field for 10 minutes and had to be lifted from the game.

The incident, however, served to rally the Crimson together to withstand the ongoing Hartford surge.

"I think [our team] got a little determined," Wheaton said. "I think they thought, 'Hey, we're not going to let them push us around. We've got something to prove and let's go out and do it.'"

Despite having difficulties clearing the ball out of the defensive end, the Harvard backs won countless battles for loose balls and contested most shots. Though the Hawks reeled off eight attempts in the second half, the Harvard defense prevented many open looks, and sophomore goalkeeper Cheryl Gunther was forced to make just four saves in the game.

"We weathered a little storm," Wheaton said. "They had the ball a lot but they didn't create many great chances."

Once the Crimson decided that the game could only be won in Hartford's end, Harvard was able to put the Hawks away.

With fewer than 11 minutes left on the clock, Harvard earned a corner kick, which Stewart sailed in front of the Hartford net. While the ball was still in the air, Kayulu committed a critical gaffe, knocking the ball to the ground with her hand. The act drew a yellow card and afforded Stewart a free shot on Nilssen.

Stewart took full advantage of the opportunity, grounding the ball into the lower left corner of the net to give the Crimson extra breathing room. Nilsson never had a chance at the save.

"I just hit it low. I usually like to hit it low," Stewart said. "I just wanted to put it in the net because that was basically the turning point. If we put that in, we win the game."

The goal sucked the life out of the Hawks' attack and forced them to stretch the field in a desperate attempt to rally back. The move left Hartford vulnerable for Yenne's finishing strike in the 82nd minute.

Taking a pass across the midfield stripe from Stewart, Yenne dribbled up the left side, drew the keeper out of the net, and pushed the ball across the goal line to add the exclamation point to the Crimson's win.

"If you were a fan, you got your money's worth today," Wheaton said. "Those were three great goals."

The match commanded an all-out effort from all sides on Saturday. Wheaton utilized 19 different players in the match, and each performed valiantly.

"We had a few players have season-best games for us," Wheaton said. "Orly Ripmaster battled for balls like she hasn't before. She did a fantastic job for us. Katie Westfall did a great job. I was just really pleased that it all came together like that."

By prevailing by three goals on Saturday, the Crimson matched its highest margin of victory ever in the NCAA Tournament. Harvard's win also erased any lingering memory of its 3-0 loss to the Hawks in the second round of the 1997 NCAA Tournament.

"Getting [into the tournament] was an opportunity for us to prove we are one of the top teams, and playing Hartford was a second chance for us," Mattison said. "Everyone was psyched up for this game. Hartford played really hard against us and everyone just laid everything out on the field."

Awaiting the Crimson later this week are the top-seeded Fighting Irish (21-0-1), who beat No. 24 Michigan 3-1 yesterday. Notre Dame finished as the runner-up in the tournament last year, and has yet to lose this season.

The third-round match is another game that Harvard will not be expected to win.

That fact alone, however, has not stopped the Crimson so far.

Notes

At the time that Harvard lost its regular-season meeting with Hartford back on Oct. 31, the defeat appeared to severely hurt the Crimson's chances at a tournament bid, especially since Harvard went on to lose its next game against Columbia later that week.

But according to an NCAA official who attended Saturday's game, Harvard's decision to play Hartford at all after the game was cancelled because of lightning on Sept. 19 played favorably in the minds of the selection committee when it was considering Harvard's case.

Since the game had no league implications for either team, it was not necessary to make the game up, especially with the only available date in the middle of the Crimson's toughest stretch of the season.

But Harvard chose to play the game anyway, and that gutsy decision apparently did not go unnoticed by the NCAA committee.

The Crimson won Saturday in spite of playing before a hostile home crowd that included a quirky Hartford professor known as the "Hartford Superfan," who toted pompons and a megaphone in an attempt to whip the Hawks' crowd into a frenzy.

When he first appeared in the game's 60th minute, the Hawks were seriously threatening the Crimson's 1-0 lead, the crowd was energized, and his "We want offense!" calls were warmly received.

But the Crimson eventually succeeded in quieting the Superfan. Once Yenne's goal put the game out of reach, he was reduced to hopelessly chanting, "We need a miracle." With many of the Hartford fans in the process of leaving, participation was significantly lacking.