NCAA Field Hockey Tourney Attracts Novice Fans

Despite 30-degree temperatures and dreary weather, a season-high crowd of 487 braved the elements and paid upwards of $7 for tickets to attend Jordan Field’s first NCAA game on Saturday.

Like the Harvard team itself, the crowd was slow to get going before coming on strong in the second half.

While the newly won fans were much appreciated by the team, they naturally had no understanding of the most basic rules of field hockey.

In the final minute, Michigan St.ate allowed a forceful midfield drive from Liz Andrews to land harmlessly in the net. Since field hockey requires that all goals must be touched inside the circle, it’s actually to a team’s advantage to avoid making contact with such a ball.

Many of the Harvard fans, ignorant of such strategy, erupted in cheers thinking Andrews had just scored a spectacular goal from midfield to tie the game. The cheers quickly subsided when the fans noticed subdued emotions from players on the field and stupid looks from others in the crowd.

Tale of Two Halves

An unnamed NCAA-competing coach praised Harvard on Saturday for its ability to make halftime adjustments and play smart, as stereotypical as that sounds.

But no doubt it was true, as Michigan State was thoroughly humbled in the second half. How astounding was Harvard’s 20-2 shot margin in the second half? Only No. 1 Old Dominion had mustered 20 shots on the Spartans in a full game this season, let alone a half.

One of the keys to Harvard’s turnaround was that it started to play a small possession game in the second half. Michigan State was putting numbers on the ball when Harvard had possession. The Crimson was able to counteract that by ensuring its other players weren’t playing way above the ball.

“They were able to find the free player and they were able to open our lines a bit so we couldn’t pressure,” said Spartan coach Michele Madison.

On the rare occasion when the Spartans did have the ball in the second half, the Harvard defense gave nothing, unlike the first half.

“[In the] second half we tightened up our zone,” said Harvard coach Sue Caples. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t standing behind their players. Once we settled down, we did not give up anything.”

Harvard’s adjustments took their toll all over the field. The Spartan backs were on their heels all half. They started to feel the pressure and committed one sloppy turnover after another. Too many of the mistakes went for naught, however, as Harvard could not finish with a high enough frequency.

The Hot Corner

Junior Liz Andrews has been Harvard’s primary force on penalty corners all season and never was she more successful than Saturday.

Andrews—who scored her biggest goals of the season in Harvard victories over Penn and NCAA-qualifying California earlier this year—is now one of just two players to score twice against Michigan State in a single game.

Harvard went with an Andrews shot on four of its first five penalty corners. The Crimson had 10 corners for the afternoon.

On both of Andrews’ goals, sophomore Tiffany Egnaczyk and junior Jen Ahn provided the push-out and stick stop, respectively. They set up Andrews with enough speed to give her a clear look on both goals.

“We’ve been practicing [the corners] a lot,” Andrews said. “The timing was good from the push-out and the stop, and it just worked.”

Harvard also unveiled new corners that it had been secretly practicing for more than three weeks.

On one of its best corner chances—its sixth—the Crimson worked the ball behind the Spartan goalkeeper with short passes, but on the final touch, a well-positioned Michigan State defender broke up the play.

Some Respect?

All of Harvard’s scoring—save for Ahn’s stick stops—was accounted for by four players who earned no form of All-Ivy recognition—Andrews, Egnaczyk, senior Philomena Gambale and junior Mina Pell.

Harvard was well represented in the All-Ivy honors, nevertheless. In all, seven players were recognized.

Freshman Jen McDavitt became the first Harvard player in 12 years to be named Ivy Rookie of the Year. McDavitt said she had expected the award to go to a Princeton player for the fourth year in a row, but that it was happy surprise.

Ahn, who made the switch from midfield to back this year and often singlehandedly shut down opposing teams’ top scorers, and junior Kate McDavitt, Harvard’s leading scorer, were the Crimson’s two First Team selections.

One surprise was that captain Katie Scott, Harvard’s sweeper and a First Team selection the past two years, only earned Second Team honors this time around. Backs were wholly underrepresented on the First Team as Ahn and Princeton’s Emily Townsend were the only defensive players named.

The entirety of Harvard’s young starting midfield earned recognition. Sophomore Shelley Maasdorp earned Second Team honors, while Jen McDavitt and sophomore Kate Gannon both received Honorable Mention.

Junior goalkeeper Katie Zacarian, who had a role in nine Harvard shutouts this year and led the league in goals against average, was a Second Team honoree. Yale goalkeeper Krissy Nesburg led the league in saves and earned the First Team spot despite giving up nearly twice as many goals per game as Zacarian. Because Harvard’s team defense was so solid, Zacarian didn’t have nearly as many chances as Nesburg to dazzle the opposition.

They’ll Be Back

With its dominance in the second half, Harvard sent a clear message that it will be a force to be reckoned with next season.

Just two players on its roster, Scott and Gambale, are seniors. The consensus among the team is that there’s no direction to go but up.

“Next year we’re going to be right back here, and we’re going to go far. We’re going to go real far,” Zacarian said.

Harvard’s second NCAA at-large berth in three years should help not just in terms of recruiting, but also in terms of getting more of the elite teams to schedule Harvard.

This year, the Crimson played just one team, Wake Forest, from field hockey’s top three conferences—the ACC, the Big Ten, and the CAA. Getting more such teams on its schedule—as Princeton does with little trouble—is crucial to becoming a serious national title contender.

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