A Perfect Ending: Sedgwick uses her head to lift W. Soccer past Princeton

PRINCETON, N.J.—As of Saturday night, there are no more perfect teams in Division I women’s soccer.

Harvard freshman Sara Sedgwick, with a firm thrust of her head that propelled a ball deep into an unguarded crack in the Princeton defense, slew the final one, and thereby freed the Crimson players from their season-long curse against ranked opposition.

Harvard (7-5-1, 3-1-1 Ivy) and No. 15 Princeton (12-1, 5-1) battled end-to-end for 104 scoreless minutes under the lights at Lourie-Love field. The 1-0 result could easily have gone in either direction with the number of chances each team had that missed by inches.

The deadlock was finally broken in the second overtime on a corner kick by junior midfielder Katie Westfall. Sedgwick turned a game characterized by near-misses into one defined by a true strike—a bold header into the left corner of the net from several yards out that no one could touch.

Sedgwick was Harvard’s previously untested force in the air, but she was well known to those who had been watching Crimson practices. On the game-winner, she saw she had an angle on Westfall’s serve, called for it, and, with no Princeton defender within a yard of her, drilled the ball up and into the net.

The force from Sedgwick’s blast on one side of the field immediately led to a release of energy on the other end from the Crimson bench, which exploded across field in celebration.

It was a reaction that had been inhibited for weeks by one close defeat after another.

“We were saying the whole game, this was going to ruin their season and make our season,” Sedgwick said. “It’s a huge momentum shift for us.”

On the side opposite the ecstatic Harvard players, there was silence from the stunned Princeton players and the crowd that had risen in their support every time they approached the Harvard net. Losing was a foreign substance they had no experience dealing with—at least not this season.

For Harvard, the victory was its first over a ranked foe this season. The Crimson felt it had played well enough to win against No. 4 Portland and No. 10 Penn State earlier this season, but had no points to show for it. This result was finally different.

“We’ve had close games and the luck just didn’t go [our way], while Princeton’s been in our situation but getting the more positive end of things,” Sedgwick said. “This was a change [for us]. An overdue change, I think.”

The Crimson still needs a Princeton loss or tie against Cornell next Saturday to stay in the Ivy title picture. But regardless of whether it claims the outright league crown or not, Harvard proved the actual distance between the two teams was nothing like the disparity in the teams’ records and national rankings entering the game.

Losing to Harvard was no new experience for Princeton. The Crimson improved to 9-1 versus the Tigers over the past decade, including five straight shutouts at Lourie-Love Field.

Harvard and Princeton were each in control for their fair share of the game, though the Crimson ultimately had the greater share of possession. The Tigers dominated the opening minutes, during which Princeton was one missed touch away from scoring on a corner kick.

Harvard was in control for the near entirety of the second half, but Princeton defended well deep in their zone to stay in the game.

“You see why they’re so successful—they defend so very well, and they’re great with the little counterattacks,” said Harvard coach Tim Wheaton. “So even though we might have had the ball a bunch, they had some very dangerous chances.”

In the final minutes of the second half, Harvard seemed to have a game-winner off a header from a corner kick, but the ball was stopped by the foot of Princeton defender Heather Deerin.

When the first overtime came around, Princeton gained new life out of nowhere and put Harvard through tense moments. The Tigers owned nearly all the scoring opportunities and a couple of corner kicks and free kicks in the Harvard net. On a setup off of a free kick, only the crossbar kept Princeton back Brea Griffiths from assuring a victory.

The Tigers finally ran out of chances in the second overtime. Momentum abruptly shifted again as Harvard kept the ball in the Tiger end in the minutes before the game-winner.

On one the best chances of the night, senior forward Joey Yenne beat several players to get upfield and seemed to have Princeton goalkeeper Jean Poster beat high with a shot from the 18, but Poster managed to barely tip it over the crossbar. The ensuing corner kick led to Sedgwick’s game-winning header.

Harvard’s longstanding road shutout streak had been maintained with strong defense and, even more so, outstanding goalkeeping.

This most recent result was no different. Though freshmen Katie Shields and Maja Agustdottir each finished the game with their bright-colored shirts covered in dirt, they handled every ball they called for cleanly, despite the poor field conditions and the pressure all around them.

The limited number of dangerous shots taken by Princeton was at the most basic level due to play of the Crimson backs—sophomore Liza Barber and juniors Laura Cozzolino and Caitlin Fisher, who battled the Tigers’ forwards and kept them from making dangerous counterattacks all evening.

The defensive result was a sharp improvement over the three easy scoring opportunities allowed in its loss to Yale earlier this month.

Harvard has since put more emphasis in practice on stepping up and putting pressure on the ball while maintaining support from behind. The results showed Saturday.

Princeton sophomore Esmeralda Negron, who had scored five game-winning goals this season, was limited to a single shot against Harvard. Fisher guarded her most of the game, and the two were grabbing, holding and fighting for position all evening.

“They’re a dirty team,” Fisher said, “and we just knew we had to be mentally prepared for it more than anything, because we knew it was more of a mental battle than [a] physical [one], really. I’m proud of our team because we didn’t let up. We didn’t let them get into our heads.”

Saturday’s was a win Harvard desperately needed in order to earn its seventh straight NCAA tournament berth. After losing to Yale, Harvard was set to play three ranked teams in a row between Princeton, No. 9 Connecticut and No. 23 Dartmouth.

Now, having taken out the first, the Crimson is eager to take on the second.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.