NOTEBOOK: Penalty Kicks a Fitting Way to End a Long, Trying Game and Crimson’s Season

At the end of a long season, after hundreds of minutes played, the Harvard women’s soccer team’s fate came down to penalty kicks.

It didn’t quite seem fair, but at the same time, it was perfectly fitting for two teams that, in their two matchups this season, seemed to match up stride for stride. On Sept. 17, the Crimson and Northeastern went took a 1-1 tie into overtime before senior Nicole Rhodes scored the game-winner in the 99th minute.

The teams weren’t strangers to each other, and they certainly weren’t strangers to overtime. The extra time in Friday evening’s match marked the sixth time that each team has needed more than 90 minutes to settle a game this season. Harvard went to overtime in four straight games in September and emerged unbeaten (one win, three ties). Northeastern saw its mettle tested—and conference title locked up—with a 1-0 double-overtime victory over Hofstra in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game last week.

So while the teams were mentally prepared for the extra sessions, their play lacked the crispness that was on display earlier in the game.

“It was a physical contest at the end of a long season,” Harvard coach Ray Leone said.

As the final minutes of regulation and overtime wore on, fatigue was palpable on both sides. It didn’t help that a few minutes of steady rain in the second overtime period were enough to make the turf and ball slick and unpredictable.

Still, the Crimson wasn’t making excuses for its performance down the stretch.

“We should be able to handle the physical side of going to overtime over and over again,” junior defender Lizzy Nichols said.

“I think it’s a sign of mental toughness to go through the hard-fought battle and get through,” she added.

HIGH IMPACT

If Harvard wasn’t making excuses for its performance by citing fatigue or game conditions, it certainly wasn’t going to blame injuries. But losses sustained both before and during the game might have hurt the Crimson down the stretch.

Co-captain Nikki Rhodes, who had appeared in every game in 2008 and started about half of them, sat out all 110 minutes on Friday night. But in the round of penalty kicks, Leone brought Rhodes in for a cameo on Harvard’s first shot.

Rhodes seemed to have no trouble completing the kick, but Northeastern keeper Stephanie Gordon guessed correctly and made a leaping save to give her Huskies an early advantage.

No less significant than Rhodes’ injury was one to forward Katherine Sheeleigh two weeks ago at Dartmouth. The sophomore, who finished second on the team in goals and points and picked up a spot on the Ivy League First Team, started both halves of Friday’s matchup but departed for good in the 53rd minute. Leone did not send her out for a penalty kick in the decisive round.

“She just didn’t have her legs,” Leone said. “We were hopeful, and I’m proud of her giving it a go.”

Extra time saw a few Crimson players shaken up and replaced. Sophomore midfielder Gina Wideroff went up for a header with a Northeastern player and came down with a bloody nose; she left the game and did not return, but put on another jersey to signal her readiness to re-enter the game.

In the 109th minute, senior midfielder Rachael Lau went down on a play for the ball and sat out the final ticks.

BIG SHOES TO FILL

Harvard has a bright future ahead, with a core of young players poised to move up and lead the team in 2009. But the season’s final game meant the final minutes of the five seniors’ soccer careers.

Only midfielders Lau and Erin Wylie saw action on Friday night, which saw Wylie turn in one of the best games of her four years in a Crimson uniform.

Not only did the one-time league Rookie of the Year fill up the box score with a goal and an assist (her third of the season in both categories), but she was also kept active on the right sideline all night.

Seniors Rhodes, Allison Keeley, and Maggie Robinson join Lau and Wylie in a class whose four years included two coaching changes and a three-win season just two years ago.

“Our senior class has gone through so much over their four years,” junior forward Christina Hagner said. “They’ve battled through adversity and come through to be great players.”

“They’re going to be tough shoes to fill,” she added.

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.