W. Soccer Begins NCAA Tournament Tonight

The Harvard women’s soccer team, now ranked 23rd in the nation, won’t have the easiest road back to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

Tonight in Storrs, Conn. the Crimson (10-5, 4-3 Ivy) will meet familiar regional rival Hartford (15-5) in the first round of NCAAs. The winner will likely face No. 13 UConn (16-5), which has one of the easiest first-round draws of the tournament in Northeast Conference champion Sacred Heart (10-9).

The Harvard-Hartford game will be played under the lights, immediately following the UConn-Sacred Heart game, which is set for 4:30 p.m.

Last year when Harvard advanced to the Sweet 16, Hartford was its second round opponent.

Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said he was not intimidated by this year’s tournament draw.

“If you’re going to be a national champion, you got to play the best,” he said. “We may be playing the best earlier than we would have chosen, but that’s okay. You got to beat them anyway, so I’m confident.”

The tougher draw is due largely to the tournament’s recent expansion from 48 to 64 teams, which necessitates that weaker automatic qualifiers play the higher seeds in the first round, rather than the best teams that fall short of 16 first-round byes.

Harvard—once ranked as high as No. 11 in the nation—could have avoided a tough draw by becoming one of those higher-seeded teams, but a 2-4 record to close the season crushed those hopes. Nevertheless, the Crimson hopes to make the most of its current situation.

The NCAA, however, hasn’t made the situation any easier. The national office had said for months that all first round and second round games would be played on Friday and Sunday, but the games at UConn were pushed back to tonight and Saturday because the regular schedule conflicted with the Big East men’s soccer tournament.

Hartford was the regular season and tournament runner-up of the American East, a conference that is rated lower than the Ivy League, which, with four of eight teams making NCAAs, is one of the nation’s best. The Crimson beat both Hartford and American East champion Boston University during the regular season.

Harvard will be playing its ninth game in the last six years against Hartford tonight, making them the Crimson’s most common opponent during that stretch. It will be their third meeting in the last four NCAA tournaments. Hartford beat Hartford 3-0 in the 1998 second round, and Harvard beat Hartford 3-0 in the second round in 2000.

“I guess [Harvard vs. Hartford] is becoming a tradition,” Wheaton said. “They’re a great team. We’re looking forward to playing them.”

Harvard’s 1-0 victory over Hartford on Oct. 31 was unusual by all accounts. The Crimson’s lone goal was scored in the 32nd minute when the Hawk defenders stopped playing because they believed Harvard was offsides. The referees then proceeded to call the majority of fouls on the Crimson in the subsequent minutes, leaving Harvard on the defensive for the rest of the game.

“[Tonight] it’ll be a different game,” said junior netminderCheryl Gunther, who was forced to make 11 saves during that regular-season meeting. “Hartford will be charged up, because they felt like they were cheated last time, so we’ll have to step it up.”

The Crimson had few scoring opportunities during that game other than the one opportunistic goal. The team has struggled to find the net during its 2-4 slump, scoring just five goals in its last six games after scoring 23 in its first nine games.

During that stretch, co-captain Caitlin Costello—the team’s leading goal-scorer with seven scores this season—hasn’t scored. Neither of the team’s leading scorers from last year, junior Joey Yenne and sophomore Katie Westfall, have come close to matching that scoring output this season. Junior Beth Totman’s numbers are also down from her freshman year when she led the team in scoring.

“We didn’t play well as a team against Hartford, but we’re going to try some new tactics offensively,” Gunther said.

Gunther also expects that the team will use more substitutes than during the regular season. Harvard’s lack of substitutes was particularly evident in its 1-0 overtime loss at UConn on Oct. 24, when the Huskies brought in waves of fresh legs, and Harvard couldn’t sustain any attack outside of the opening minutes of each half.

The second-string forwards played a key role in the Oct. 31 Hartford game. They kept the ball out of the Harvard end for most of the final minutes, and prevented any last-second desperation run by the Hawks.

“The team has been pushing for getting more subs,” Gunther said. “There are a lot of good players on this team who are very good and very hungry. The key is to sub the offense because they’ve been getting really tired.”

The Harvard defenders, meanwhile, will look to rebound from their last performance where they were single-handedly beaten by one player—Penn freshman Katy Cross. They will have to stop two Hawk forwards, sophomore Jeanette Akerlund and American East Rookie of the Year Malin Engman, who have ten goals this season, although their numbers may be inflated by Hartford’s weak conference competition.

The Hawks also feature the American East Player of the Year, Sandra Kayulu. However, Kayulu’s only significant impact in her career against Harvard was her penalty-box hand ball in last year’s NCAA meeting, which led to the Crimson’s second goal.

Harvard is playing in its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament, and Hartford is playing in its fifth.

The team feels it has something to prove after finishing fourth in the league. Each of the past two seasons, the Crimson has beaten tough competition to start the year before fading during the final stretch of the regular season. The team recovered from a similar slump last year, and Gunther believes the Crimson can do it again.

“One of the things we’ve been working on is to have a lot more hunger and a lot more heart—it’s the only thing we’ve been lacking,” Gunther said. “I think you’ll see a whole new team [tonight].”