McDavitt’s Pretty Goal Caps Sloppy Victory

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Though Brown thoroughly dominated most of Saturday’s match, the Harvard field hockey team snuck off of Warner Roof with a close win in last weekend’s intense contest.

With five minutes left in the second half, and the game still knotted up at two goals apiece, junior midfielder Kate McDavitt scored her second goal of the game to put the Crimson up for good. As her freshman sister Jen McDavitt centered the ball, Kate McDavitt dove to the ground and drove the ball past the goalie for her seventh and most spectacular score of the season.

“I didn’t want to lose the game. Basically I wanted to get any shot possible on the net,” Kate McDavitt said.

So, even while the Crimson collectively had one of its worst performances of the season, spectacular play from Kate McDavitt and junior goalkeeper Katie Zacarian allowed Harvard (5-1, 3-0 Ivy) to triumph over Brown, 3-2, and stay unbeaten in Ivy play.

In the first half, Brown (2-4, 1-2) continually racked up penalty corners which the Crimson could not clear out. However, while facing a barrage of shots from nearly every angle of the field, Zacarian held strong, allowing just one goal in the first half on a score by Molly Carleton seven minutes into the match

“We definitely need to make our defense more solid and cohesive,” Zacarian said.

And while the Crimson defense may not have played a cohesive game, save for two opportunistic strikes by Brown, the back line did not break down. The Crimson players made the most of an effort where they were never in sync.

“There was a lack of communication on the field and everybody was just one second off,” Kate McDavitt said.

McDavitt figured on all three Crimson scores.

She tied the game at one two minutes after Brown’s first goal by striking home a rebound off of a penalty corner.

McDavitt earned an assist on the Crimson’s go-ahead goal with 10 minutes left in the first, when junior forward Mina Pell took advantage of Brown goalkeeper Katie Noe’s poor positioning.

Though the Bears fought back to tie the match at two on a goal by Ivy Player of the Week Laurel Pierpont, Kate McDavitt’s miraculous goal gave Harvard a lead that it would never relinquish.

Coach Sue Caples knew that the team was not playing as well as it could have on Saturday, but she was naturally glad to escape Providence with a win.

She felt that the Crimson’s intensity on individual defense was lacking throughout the entire contest, and noted that there would be a lot of emphasis on the defense’s improvement in practice this week.

However, Caples noted that when Harvard needed someone to step up and win the game, Kate McDavitt answered the challenge, and saved the Crimson from an embarrassing defeat.

The Crimson admitted that it needs to play better than it did on Saturday if it plans to contend with Wake Forest —the nation’s No. 3 ranked team—on Saturday. Harvard will have another chance to regroup and improve before Saturday’s great challenge with an evening match against Providence on Wednesday.

With a five game homestand about to begin, the Crimson needs to prepare to play a full seventy minutes of quality field hockey, something that has yet to be seen in the first six games.

Contributing writer Wes Kauble can be reached at kauble@fas.harvard.edu.

FIELD HOCKEY 3, BROWN 2

at Warner Roof, Providence, MA

Harvard (5-1, 3-0) 2 1 — 3

Brown (2-4, 1-2) 1 1 — 2

Scoring: B, Buza (Carleton), 7:16. H, K. McDavitt, 9:58. H, Pell (K. McDavitt), 14:27. B, Pierpont, 51:28. H, K. McDavitt (J. McDavitt) 65:07.

Shots on goal: H 16, B 9. Penalty Corners: H 10, B 8.

Saves: H, Zacarian (6 svs, 2 GA). B, Noe (9 svs, 3 GA).