W. Soccer Ivy Title Hopes Dashed

The Harvard women’s soccer team’s Ivy title hopes came to an end on Saturday when Princeton topped Cornell 2-0 as expected. Then to make matters worse, Dartmouth defeated Harvard 1-0 a day later to crush any sense of security the Crimson might have had in earning an NCAA tournament berth.

The Big Green (12-3-1, 5-1 Ivy) scored the game’s only goal in the third minute in freezing Hanover, N.H. and held on from there. Harvard (7-7-1, 3-2-1) needs to beat seventh-place Columbia next week to even be considered for an NCAA at-large bid, let alone be selected for one. The Crimson hasn’t missed the tournament since 1995.

“We were pretty disappointed,” said junior co-captain Katie Hodel. “We knew how big a game it was and the implications if we won or lost. We were disappointed we came out a little unorganized and gave up the early goal.”

In third minute, Crimson freshman goalkeeper Katie Shields made an initial save on a shot from the 18, but the Big Green’s Devon Haskell was left unmarked. She collected the rebound for the game’s only goal. That proved to be enough for Dartmouth’s 10th straight victory.

“It’s something we’ve been struggling with—coming out aggressive in the first five minutes in games and the second half,” Hodel said. “We knew it’s something we need to work on. We’re disappointed we made the same mistake we have been making in the past.”

Shields played the entirety of the game for the first time since freshman goaltender Maja Agustdottir returned from Iceland World Cup qualifying. Shields made eight saves for the game, equal to the total for Dartmouth’s goalkeepers, but neither team could finish after the opening minutes.

“I think for the most part we were in control of the game,” said junior forward Alisa Sato. “Just the critical five minutes at the beginning of the game was a little rough. Other than that we passed the ball, and we possessed it well. We just couldn’t finish.”

As has been the case in so many recent games for the Crimson as of late, balls went just over the crossbar and off defenders’ legs instead of where they needed to go—in the net.

“I take nothing away from their defense because they played well.” Hodel said. “Their keepers made some big saves, but we just got a little bit unlucky too, I think.”

The Crimson hasn’t scored against Dartmouth for three seasons in a row.

“It just so happens that luck didn’t go our way these past three years.” Sato said. “We’ve been better than them. We just haven’t finished them off.”

Besides three straight shutout losses to Dartmouth, Harvard has had plenty else go wrong in the past three years as well. For the third season in a row, Harvard can finish with no better than four Ivy wins. Dartmouth, meanwhile, can clinch a share of the Ivy title for the third straight year with a victory over Penn. Princeton, whose only Ivy loss was to Harvard, is already an Ivy champion for the third straight year. Harvard last won the Ivy title with an undefeated Ivy season in 1999, the senior class’ freshman year.

Harvard’s chances of making the NCAA tournament are not as slim as they might seem being a .500 team from the Ivy League. Dartmouth made the tournament in 1999 at 9-7-1 overall and 3-3-1 Ivy, and Harvard made the tournament in 2000 at 10-7 overall and 4-3 Ivy. Also, the field was only 48 teams each of those two years. It has since expanded to 64.

Working in Harvard’s favor is that all seven of its losses are against teams likely bound for NCAAs. Also, the Crimson was ranked a solid fourth in the Northeast region—one of six regions nationwide—entering the week, prior to losing to Connecticut and Dartmouth, the two top ranked teams in the region.

What’s working against Harvard this season, relatively speaking, is that its only marquee win all season was against Princeton. Its strongest nonconference wins were against Boston College, a team that lost in the Big East quarterfinals, and Central Connecticut, the Northeast Conference regular season champions.

Harvard has typically had stronger nonconference wins to its credit. Last year the Crimson beat both NCAA qualifying Boston University and Hartford. This year, Harvard lost to Hartford and beat BU, but the Terriers are sub-.500 this year. That hurts because primary selection criteria include record against teams already selected for the tournament and teams under consideration.

Harvard typically has had stronger nonconference wins against regionally-ranked teams outside of the Northeast, such as wins against BYU in 1999, Loyola Marymount and Davidson in 2000 and Marquette in 2001. This season Harvard scheduled harder out-of-region opponents and didn’t beat any of them.

A more recent example of a Northeast bubble team that made the tournament is Boston College, which made the 2001 tournament despite an 11-9-1 record. That bid came with a heavy price—the Eagles had to play at Nebraska. They ended up traveling halfway across the country to lose 5-0.

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