SIDEBAR: Double-OT Thriller Sends Harvard to NCAAs

It’s been 36 years since Title IX.

Since this monumental piece of legislation, women’s collegiate athletics has fought and struggled to reach the position it has today.

But sometimes, women’s sports still lag behind—in terms of attendance, campus support, and prominence.

For Harvard women’s soccer, however, all that changed on Saturday.

In front of a packed Ohiri Field, with a throng of shirtless men cheering on, the Crimson played in one of the greatest Ivy League matches in the program’s history, winning the game and the Ivy title in a 2-1 double-overtime thriller.

What mattered nearly as much was what happened off the field.

The crowd packed the stands, spiraling out to the Columbia side of the field. From the final 10 minutes of regulation until Lizzy Nichols’ penalty kick winner with nine seconds to go, no one sat down.

For almost 30 minutes of Saturday’s game, no one stopped cheering. For a team that is often overshadowed by its men’s counterpart, this was its moment, and it took the opportunity head-on.

“We couldn’t have done it without them. They were the 12th man out there,” senior Rachel Lau said. “They gave us that extra spark that we needed.”

“It’s the biggest crowd we have ever seen,” co-captain Allison Keeley said.

The men’s lacrosse team highlighted this new and improved crowd. As the first overtime began, the cheering faithful ripped off their shirts and began yelling, heckling, and shouting as only the most ardent of fans could.

It’s a sign of change: a women’s team—Columbia was the victim on Saturday—can be heckled the same as its men’s counterpart, and a band of naked men will get rowdy and rush the field just like it was a football championship.

It may be hard to see, but if you look past the shirtless men and inappropriate cheers, you see how this means so much to a women’s team who has taken a huge step in its program’s history.

“It was great to see them, all the fans out,” co-captain Nikki Rhodes said. “It’s great support for our program and for women’s sport in general. It was big.”

More went into this game than just what the packed stands saw. There are behind the scenes sacrifices, study sessions, and workouts that go unnoticed. In reality, this is what forms a championship team.

The chemistry was obvious: before the second overtime, Harvard coach Ray Leone left the team on its own, and the seniors took control.

It was just a small sign, but its significance was not lost on the team.

“It means so much to everyone,” Leone said. “For the seniors, they’ve put every single thing into this, and it’s not even about what’s on the field.

“It’s because of them, what they do off the field, that we are in this position,” he added.

Next stop: the NCAA Regional on Friday.

Before this game, the team will stop and smell the roses. What happened on Saturday means a lot to this women’s soccer program—winning an Ivy title can do nothing but lift it up in stature.

More than that, however, the crowd and the game created an environment that reflects positively on the current state of women’s spors.

The only downside: it could have been too much nakedness.

“Their extreme good looks were maybe distracting,” senior Maggie Robinson joked.

But the victory sent a message to the Crimson faithful, shirtless or fully-clothed: there is, at long last, a new show in town.

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