Draw Leaves Three Tied for League Lead

The Harvard women’s soccer team put itself in a position to earn its first Ivy League title since 1999, as the Crimson (9-3-4, 4-1-1 Ivy) tied Dartmouth (7-6-2, 1-4-1) 1-1 on Saturday in Hanover, N.H., and now sits in a three-way tie atop the Ancient Eight standings.

“It was a physical game, but a great contest,” Harvard coach Ray Leone said. “Just a really good game; a lot of ebb and flow for both teams.”

Although the tie was not the result the Crimson had been hoping for, Harvard is still confident about its place in the standings.

“We’re thrilled,” Leone said. “At the end of the day, the first six games are played to put you in contention for the Ivy League title in the last game. Today really was an earned tie, and now we’re still in the running for [the league championship].”

The Big Green scored the first goal of the game in the 37th minute. Dartmouth’s Kelsey Quick advanced the ball into the Crimson zone and sent a cross into the box. The ball bounced around in front of the goal and deflected off of a Harvard defender and into the back of the net.

Late in the first half, Crimson junior goalkeeper Laura Dale made a huge save to keep the game manageable at 1-0. Dale, who was leading the Ivy League with a .929 save percentage coming into the game, stuffed a Big Green attacker on a breakaway with seconds left before the break.

“It was excellent goalkeeping,” Leone said. “That was a critical point blank save. [Junior Lauren] Mann made another great save in overtime. Same kind of thing. It was an excellent game for both of them.”

Dale recorded four saves in the first half, and Mann shut out Dartmouth while also making four saves in the second half and overtime.

In the second frame, Harvard finally tied the game when sophomore Katherine Sheeleigh found the net in the 73rd minute. Sheeleigh received a long ball from freshman Melanie Baskind and then blasted a right-footed shot into the lower corner.

Sheeleigh and Baskind are tied for the team lead with six goals each. They both rank in the top 10 in the Ivy League in points and goals.

For the rest of the game and the two overtime periods, neither team could muster the go-ahead goal.

“We were just off a bit on our final ball and our services in the box,” Leone said. “We just weren’t on the money. It happens.”

The Crimson earned six corners to the Big Green’s one, but Harvard was unable to capitalize on the crosses.

The contest against Dartmouth was the first time since September that the Crimson did not score two or more times, but the lack of offensive production was in part due to the physical nature of the match, not just an offense that struggled to produce.

“It was a very physical game,” co-captain Nikki Rhodes said. “It was definitely not possession oriented. We didn’t play our best soccer, but we played with a lot of heart.”

Harvard can win the league championship next weekend by beating Columbia, one of the other two teams tied atop the Ancient Eight standings, in the Crimson’s final contest Saturday at home. Princeton is the other squad with a shot at the title. Harvard is unbeaten in its last seven and has outscored opponents 18-5 in that stretch.

Since 1999, the Crimson and Cornell are the only two teams not to win a league title. The players on the Crimson have also never had an Ivy League game of this magnitude.

“I think that we’re all just really excited to be in this position,” Rhodes said. “Winning the championship is something we haven’t done in such a long time.”

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.