Athlete of the Week

The Harvard field hockey team felt that overall, there wasn’t much separating it from the regional rivals that made the NCAA tournament last year. One area where the Crimson felt it was clearly deficient was penalty corners.

But that team bears scarce resemblance to the one on the field now.

By Friday’s season opener against Vermont, however, Harvard coach Sue Caples had no criticism for her corner battery. By Sunday’s Ivy opener, it was the corner unit that put the Crimson two goals in front of a tied game it had otherwise dominated.

The two scores that put Harvard ahead 4-2 originated off of one stick, that of junior Liz Andrews, whose straight shot can leave her teammates and opponents in awe.

The straight shot has become Harvard’s weapon of choice on the corner after the usual required motions—pushing the ball in from the end line and trapping it at the top of the circle 16 yards out from the net. Andrews, one of three players Harvard regularly rotates up top, distinguished herself this past weekend.

Two of the goals that originated from Andrews came off deflections, one by freshman Jen McDavitt for the Crimson’s lone second-half goal in a 5-0 win over Vermont, the second by Mina Pell for the eventual game-winner against Penn with 15 minutes left. The insurance goal against Penn, which put the Crimson up 4-2, was all her own.

Andrews was credited with one other assist for the day just eight minutes after the opening whistle against Penn—a setup for her senior roommate Philomena Gambale.

Andrews’ scoring efforts on penalty corners is not unprecedented—she scored off straight shots in games against Providence and Boston College last season. With a goal and two assists last weekend, she’s already matched her total of three points from last season.

The improvement in Harvard’s corners so far can be attributed largely to increased confidence across the battery, according to Harvard captain Katie Scott.

“She has a hard, accurate shot, and our forwards have been very aggressive in getting deflections,” Scott said.

Caples made it clear that Harvard would need to develop a consistent corner attack to be a legitimate contender at the national level. Tomorrow night’s game against Connecticut, who has bested the Crimson 21-2-2 in their all-time meetings, should be the best challenge to date.

Whether Andrews and the rest of the corner units will meet the challenge, time will tell, but this past weekend’s performance couldn’t have done any more to keep expectations high.