Field Hockey Scores Milestone Victory

Not even a feared power outage at Jordan Field could stop the Harvard field hockey team from getting coach Sue Caples her 150th career win.

The No. 16 Crimson (4-0, 1-0 Ivy) downed Providence (2-5) 5-1 last night after a generator timing error temporarily shut down the lights for a 15-minute span, completely halting play. Unfortunately for the Friars, Harvard showed no ill effects after the impromptu break, out-shooting Providence 27-9 in the milestone contest.

“It’s terrific,” Caples said. “A lot of players contributed, and we’ve had some good teams here. It’s really about the players, the great support we’ve had from family and friends. It feels good.”

Senior midfielder Shelley Maasdorp led the way with an assist on top of her third and fourth goals of the year, surpassing forwards Gretchen Fuller and Julie Lane’s previous team lead of three scores.

“We knew we could dominate, knew we could put a lot of goals on the scoreboard,” Maasdorp said. “There was an aspect of doing it for the coach, and it was a great win. We went into the game hoping to play really strong and dominate. We wanted to prove how good we could be.”

Maasdorp didn’t hold that scoring lead for long, however, as the Crimson once again benefited from its now-prolific sophomore duo of Fuller and Lane, who each tallied their team-leading fourth goals of the year. Fuller notched hers just 2:30 into the contest on a nifty helper from captain midfielder Kate Gannon, while Lane one-timed an assist from Maasdorp at 36:43.

“They were great goal-scorers in high school, and that’s a gift—you don’t really teach that,” Caples said. “They’re understanding our system, how to move out there and they’re still improving. They have a good sense and a good stick around the goal.”

Impressively, under Caples’ guidance, Harvard has not yet demonstrated the weaknesses one might expect from a young team that lost six key players after graduation.

“Approaching the season, there was this feeling that people needed to step up,” Maasdorp said. “We’ve lost so many starters, and we’re a new team with a new personality. We all feel the need to step up, and Gretchen and Julie are adding so much for our play and for our game.”

But any conversation about the new, productive faces on the Crimson would be remiss if it did not mention freshman midfielder Tamara Sobek-Rosnick, who tallied her second goal of the year after coming off the bench for a penalty shot. As she did against UMass, Sobek-Rosnick flashed a brilliantly deadly stroke, beating Friar netminder Meredith Jones top-shelf into the goal.

“We’ve got a couple of strokers, and she’s got a tremendous stroke,” Caples said. “And she knows she can come off the bench to do that. It’s a pretty spectacular shot.”

Harvard will try for its fifth straight win—and Caples’ 151st—on Saturday, as the team welcomes Maine to Jordan Field at 2 p.m.

“We’re not there yet,” Caples said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re getting wins, scoring a lot of goals. We’re going to need to execute better. But there were moments tonight that were good hockey.”

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