Crimson Continues Slump Against Ranked Foes

At this point, the Harvard field hockey team may come off as “numerophobic.”

After starting off its road trip to Ann Arbor, Mich. by edging Northwestern (6-6) 2-1 on Friday, the Crimson’s third game against a ranked opponent brought its third loss.

No. 8 Michigan (9-3) surged past No. 17 Harvard (6-3) by a score of 4-2 yesterday afternoon.

“Our hugest challenge as a team is breaking out of the mentality that teams should, in theory, beat us,” junior midfielder Jen McDavitt said. “We have a lot of underdog fire, but we need to forget who they are. We can be a comeback team, and we have been like against Brown last week, as long as we think we can do it.”

MICHIGAN 4, HARVARD 2

Harvard jumped out to a 2-1 lead less than midway through the first half, but could not find a way to cage the Wolverines, allowing three unanswered goals over the next 25 minutes.

The hosts helped themselves first as Adrienne Hortillosa scored the first of her two goals just under seven minutes into the game, flipping a shot off a penalty corner up and under the right post.

The Crimson, however, would not be content to let Michigan do as it pleased.

A little over four minutes later, captain midfielder Kate Gannon sent a free hit from outside the circle into the fray before the cage. Sophomore forward Gretchen Fuller came up with the loose ball and knew exactly what to do with it, sneaking it inside the right bar for her fifth goal of the year.

“Gretchen’s score was crucial,” McDavitt said. “It immediately gave us that boost we needed. When they initially scored we were a little bit nervous, but the question had been if we could run with them for the next 60 minutes.”

Striking while the iron was hot, Harvard then took the lead about 90 seconds later.

On the Crimson’s first penalty corner of the game, Gannon directed the insertion to the top of the arc to McDavitt who settled the ball. Senior midfielder Shelley Maasdorp lowered the boom, ripping a shot that tore past Wolverine goalie Beth Riley and into the lower half of the right side of the cage at the 12:42 mark. It was Maasdorp’s third goal in two days and eighth of the year, tops on the squad.

“It’s clear to anyone that Shelley is a phenomenal player,” McDavitt said. “We just look for her on the field, and that may be a lot of pressure, but she’s up to it and thrives on it. There are few players that can single-handedly influence a game as greatly as she can.”

The Harvard lead would be short-lived, however, as Michigan got the equalizer at 16:08 when Kate Morris redirected Eleanor Martin’s crossing pass from the left side past Crimson senior keeper Aliaa Remtilla.

The teams played out the rest of the half with no score, and went to halftime stuck at 2-2.

“We were just trying to score as many goals as we could,” Gannon said. “Our mentality was that we cannot start lying down. You can never sit back against a team like that.”

After the intermission, Hortillosa notched her second goal of the game and gave the Wolverines the lead on a shot off a controversial penalty corner a little over a minute and a half into the period.

The team contended that the Wolverines’ right wing left the circle early, planting herself before the corner officially began. In the ensuing argument with the referee, who declared the goal good, head coach Sue Caples was given a card and asked to leave the field.

“Their third goal hurt us a lot mentally,” McDavitt said. “It was their second corner in a row, and the decision [on the goal] stunned us.”

Then, under a minute later, Morris altered the path of a Mary Fox pass past Remtilla and pushed Michigan’s advantage to two.

The Crimson could not crack the Wolverine defense and managed only one shot in the entire course of the second period.

“It’s unfortunate,” Gannon said. “We think that we’re certainly good enough to play with them, and it’s a shame that we just didn’t get the job done in the second half.”

For the game, Michigan owned a 15-5 edge in shots and an 8-2 advantage in penalty corners. Thus far this season, Harvard is 4-1 in games it has more penalty corners that its opponent and 1-2 in games it has fewer.

“We don’t think that we should lose the rest of the season,” McDavitt said. “We know we have the team to beat in the Ivies, in the region. The first half [against Michigan] we played to win, but in the second we just sort of settled too much and played to hold on.”

HARVARD 2, NORTHWESTERN 1

After a scoreless first period, a pair of Maasdorp goals proved to be enough for the Crimson to roll on.

Ten minutes into the second frame, Candice Cooper put the Wildcats on the board with her 12th goal of the season and the first tally of the game.

But after taking only four shots in the first half, Harvard ripped off 11 in the second, the two biggest coming from the senior from Zimbabwe.

Down 1-0 60 minutes into the 70-minute game, the Crimson desperately needed a score to avoid the upset. Enter Maasdorp.

“She was just really fired up,” Gannon said. “It’s obviously tough to come back, but we’ve done it before. We have that confidence, and [Shelley’s] energy converted into some really great goals. That was just what we needed.”

McDavitt and Gannon gave Maasdorp an opportunity on a penalty corner and she capitalized, flipping a shot past Northwestern keeper Sherri-Anne Nyberg at 60:24.

Harvard then got its game-winner with under four minutes left on the clock. Maasdorp collected a rebound and scooted it across the box inside the far left post, marking the first time this year the Wildcats have surrendered a second half lead.

Remtilla made two saves, and junior forward Beth Sackovich also contributed two saves defensively in preservation of the victory.

The Crimson now looks forward to Wednesday night when it hosts No. 10 Northeastern on Jordan Field at 7 p.m.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.