Rookie Sheeleigh Scores Four

Harvard’s 2007 season is giving new meaning to the old cliché that history is bound to repeat itself.

The team looks eerily similar to the 2005 squad, which narrowly missed an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. That year, Katie Shields ’05 paced a strong defense with a single-season-record 11 shutouts. This year, sophomore Lauren Mann is picking up right where Shields left off, with a remarkable five shutouts through eight games and four straight clean-sheet wins.

Junior captain Nikki Rhodes was a freshman standout in 2005, and she remains firmly planted on the back line, anchoring this year’s squad like she did two years ago.

For her, the similarities are striking.

“It’s very similar to my freshman year,” Rhodes said. “We work really well together, we’re finally getting a rhythm, and it’s good because it’s good timing coming up to the Ivy League.”

Yet, there is one difference between the two editions—this season’s team, unlike the one in 2005, scores.

And the Crimson has its freshmen to thank for that. Last weekend, rookie Gina Wideroff notched two game-winning goals. This weekend, classmate Katherine Sheeleigh provided the firepower. She tallied the game-winning goal in Harvard’s 1-0 victory over New Hampshire yesterday, just two days after her explosive hat trick in Friday’s dominating 4-0 victory over Central Connecticut State.

HARVARD 1, NEW HAMPSHIRE 0

Freshman forward Katherine Sheeleigh again made the difference in a tight game, leading Harvard to 1-0 win against New Hampshire yesterday at Ohiri Field.

The Crimson finally broke things open with 15:28 remaining in regulation, when Wideroff threaded a leading pass through the Wildcats defense and found Sheeleigh running on.

Sheeleigh beat UNH goalkeeper Nikki Golding to the ball and tucked away the lone goal of the match.

Wideroff, who connected with Sheeleigh twice on Friday, got the assist and inspired talk from coach Ray Leone of a potentially dynamic freshman duo.

“It’s a team thing but you’re always looking for the 1-2 combinations,” Leone said. “And I think Gina’s starting to learn the strengths of Sheeleigh and vice versa, so they are running off of each other very well.”

After her fifth shutout of the season, sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Mann gave the credit to her defense.

“This definitely is a whole new team from last year,” she said. “The defense is amazing. Obviously today I didn’t really have to do much.”

While Mann might have been able to relax, the defense was forced to work hard in the first half while the Crimson struggled to get things going offensively.

With the exception of two shots fired on goal in the first half by Sheeleigh—one a left-footed rocket that Golding was just barely able to fist over the crossbar—the team was forced to spend a lot of time on the defensive.

Harvard’s defensive backs, however, were up to the challenge, allowing only one shot on goal in the first half.

Leone called his team “a resilient bunch of young women” in light of its first-half struggles.

“They were not satisfied with their effort and they just changed it and cranked it up another notch in the second half,” Leone said.

HARVARD 4, CCSU 0

It’s been all freshmen, all the time for the Crimson this season.

Entering the game against the Blue Devils, all but one of Harvard’s goals on the season had come from the class of 2011.

And it was more of the same on Friday night, as freshmen produced all four goals for the Crimson during its dominating 4-0 win in New Britain, Conn.

Not to mention, three of them came from one player—Sheeleigh. In the performance of the season for Harvard, the first-year striker blasted in three scores for the first hat trick of her young career.

“[Sheeleigh]’s definitely coming into her own,” Rhodes said. “I think Friday was a big step for her, getting those three goals, because she’s been so close for so many games now. She’s a big-time freshman.”

Harvard controlled possession throughout the game, outshooting the Blue Devils, 16-11, on the day. And Sheeleigh provided all the finishing the Crimson would need.

Harvard continued its dominance on the defensive end, getting its fourth shutout of the year. The solid play of the backs has made life easy for Mann, but when she has had to make saves, she had made them with aplomb.

“[Mann] is having a great year,” Rhodes said. “She is really confident back there.”

A dominating defense, coupled with an explosive young offense, is spelling success for Harvard so far this year.

“This is a whole new team from last year,” Mann said.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer S. Jesse Zwick can be reached at jzwick@fas.harvard.edu.