Field Hockey Earns Gritty Win

The No. 20 Harvard field hockey team has devised a potent recipe for success—put a goal on the board, and let the defense take it from there.

Yesterday afternoon, the Crimson (5-1) followed the directions to perfection, scoring in the first 42 seconds and holding No. 15 UConn (5-3) scoreless the rest of the way for a 1-0 victory at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex in Storrs, Conn.

Coming off a tough 1-0 loss to No. 2 Maryland, Harvard would not go fruitless at the offensive end in this contest.

“We were raring to go the first minute,” junior back Jen DeAngelis said. “We took it to them.”

Charging downfield off the face-off, junior forward Julie Lane worked the ball in close and earned a penalty corner.

Sophomore back Devon Shapiro leveled a straight shot off the corner, and junior forward Gretchen Fuller, positioned off the right post, tipped the ball into the cage.

“After that we all thought ‘Let’s try to keep that momentum going,’” DeAngelis said. “But we didn’t ever really get in that groove.”

The Crimson found itself unable to level any sort of a threat offensively the rest of the game.

“We could string together three passes, but there would be a critical pass that we were lacking to get out and be as effective as we wanted to be,” Fuller said.

With its vaunted defense, however, Harvard would make that goal stand for the remaining 69:18, with much of the action the rest of the game occurring around midfield.

“What [Coach] Sue [Caples] ended up saying was ‘It wasn’t pretty, but good teams gut it out and find a way to win,’” DeAngelis added. “We’re going to take it as a learning experience and really grow from it. It’s good to play good teams because they expose your weaknesses and you find out what you have to work on.”

Senior forward Jane Sackovich sat out her second consecutive game with an injured back, but is expected to be available for practice this week.

“She’s a solid presence on the forward line,” Fuller said. “We’re looking forward to having her back.”

The Huskies out-shot Harvard 8-2 and held a 7-2 edge in penalty corners, but that mattered little.

A large contributing factor was Crimson freshman net-minder Kelly Knoche, who tallied six saves en route to her fifth shutout.

Every Harvard win this season has been a shutout, and the Crimson has outscored its opponents 10-1.

The victory over the Huskies, who fell to Villanova in Storrs on Saturday, is more impressive considering the perennial power from the Constitution State has not lost twice in a row at home since 2001.

The Crimson also avenged a 3-1 loss it suffered last year at the hands of the Huskies at home in Cambridge.

Up next for Harvard is Ivy-foe Brown in a 12 p.m. showdown at Jordan Field in Cambridge.

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