No Treat for W. Soccer Against No. 9 UConn

The Harvard women’s soccer team fell 3-1 yesterday to UConn and ruined a golden chance to solidify its position for an NCAA at-large berth. Sunday’s game at Dartmouth now looms as must-win.

Harvard (7-5-1, 3-1-1 Ivy) gave up early goals in both the first and second half against the No. 9 Huskies (15-2-1). The Crimson was able to come back after the first deficit, but not the second.

Harvard’s best chance to tie the game again came in the 86th minute when senior forward Joey Yenne received a great feed a few yards out of the goal, but her shot was deflected wide by a UConn defender.

Husky leading scorer Kristen Graczyk scored a few minutes later on a counterattack to ice the game.

“We’re disappointed, I think we feel like we did this to ourselves today,” said Harvard coach Tim Wheaton. “We didn’t have a great day against a great team which we need to play well against.”

A victory over UConn, the Northeast region’s top-ranked team, would have gone a long way in helping to secure an NCAA at-large berth. The Crimson fortunately has another chance to prove itself against Dartmouth, the region’s second-ranked team, this weekend.

The game has Ivy title implications as well, but Harvard’s fate in the league race could be decided before it takes the field. If No. 19 Princeton (12-2, 5-1) beats Cornell (8-4-2, 2-4) on Saturday, Harvard will be eliminated.

But a Princeton loss or tie combined with Crimson victories over Dartmouth (10-3-1, 4-1) and Columbia (5-7-2, 0-2-1) would clinch Harvard a share of the Ivy title and an automatic birth for the NCAAs.

With the chance at the automatic berth far from a sure thing, Harvard hoped to come out stronger against UConn. Instead the Crimson came out flat to start each half.

The Huskies struck first in the 12th minute of play, when junior forward Salla Ranta found the back of the net off of a corner kick. Harvard let UConn take three shots from point blank range before Ranta found the back of the net.

The Crimson scored a game-tying goal in the 24th minute on junior forward Alisa Sato’s first score of the season. The goal came off a center from senior back Katie Urbanic, which first deflected off a Husky defender before finding Sato’s foot. She then slammed the ball to the top of the net.

“[The goal] sort of got the momentum going at the end of the first half,” Sato said.

But the momentum failed to produce any further results, and the Huskies scored early in the second and would not relinquish the lead. The goal came off a failed Harvard clear inside the 18. Sophomore Zahra Jalalian took advantage of the turnover and setup freshman forward Brittany Barakat—the Huskies’ second leading scorer—for an unstoppable shot.

Yesterday’s loss to UConn marks the second time in three games that the Crimson has let up three goals to an opponent. Before then, it had shut out four consecutive opponents.

“I’m disappointed with the team defensive play, but I think there were breakdowns in the beginning that made it 4 v. 3 or 5 v. 3 in the back,” said sophomore back Liza Barber.

UConn had many more scoring opportunities than the Crimson, outshooting Harvard 20-13 and creating twice as many corner kick opportunities as the Crimson.

Wheaton, never one to be silent on the sidelines, earned a yellow card in the last five minutes of play after criticizing the referee for calling a foul against junior midfielder Caitlin Fisher.

The loss dropped Harvard to 3-22-1 all-time against the Huskies.

The game against Dartmouth will take place at 11 a.m. in Hanover. The Big Green will want the victory just as much as Harvard. Unlike the Crimson, Dartmouth still controls its own destiny in claiming a share of the Ivy title.

“No matter what happens with Princeton on Saturday, it’s an Ivy championship [on Sunday],” Barber said.