Michigan Drops Crimson in Cambridge

The Harvard field hockey team may be reaching celebrity status. The Crimson set up an autograph tent after its Saturday contest against Michigan, and young fans of both teams flooded to get the players’ autographs. Maybe Harvard achieved more than one goal for the game, after all.

Coming off of a tough 1-0 loss versus No. 10 Massachusetts, Harvard (4-6) fell to the Wolverines (6-7) at Jordan Field, 3-1.

“Michigan is a very athletic, very skilled team,” Crimson coach Sue Caples said. “We battled them the best we could, [but it was] not enough.”

“Michigan is a very respectable team,” co-captain Elizabeth Goodman-Bacon added. “We were coming off of a good game last Tuesday, and we just really hope to build off of [this game] coming into Ivy play next weekend.”

The Wolverines came out aggressively, earning six penalty corners in the first period. Harvard’s freshman goalkeeper, Cynthia Tassopoulos, recorded three of her game-high 10 saves in the first period of play, but Michigan was able to take advantage of its penalty corner opportunities and went into halftime leading Harvard 3-0.

“We gave up some unfortunate fouls in the circle,” Goodman-Bacon said. “Going into next week, we’re just going to work on our circle defense so that we give up less penalty corners.”

“We need to take care of the ball,” Caples added, “and not give them second-chance opportunities...We just gave them too many chances. In the first half, the big difference was that Michigan was getting to the 50-50 balls, and we were conceding.”

The Wolverines often bypassed the midfield during the game, hitting balls out of the backfield up to their forwards. Caples noted that the Crimson tends to involve its midfielders in its build-up, so Michigan’s strategy of quickly advancing the ball took Harvard’s midfielders out of the game. The Wolverines’ forwards showed tremendous quickness, and the Crimson defense had a tough time dealing with that speed.

After allowing three Michigan goals in the first period, Harvard’s defense stepped up in the second half, preventing the Wolverines from scoring again. Sophomore Allie Kimmel scored the Crimson’s only goal—and her fourth of the season—off of a rebound during Harvard’s third penalty corner with 21:74 remaining in the second half.

“We did a good job of finishing that [play],” Goodman-Bacon said. “It was just a matter of getting tips and getting in front of the goalie.”

“We battled back a little bit in the second half,” Caples added. “We went after them and made good decisions when we couldn’t get to the 50-50 balls, to be in a good defensive position.”

Although Michigan defeated the Crimson, Harvard’s last two games have been against solid, non-conference opponents. The physicality, athleticism, and game tempo that the Crimson has seen in its string of non-conference games have forced the team to play at a higher level.

“We were just a little battle-weary [against Michigan] with the lineup,” Caples said. “We’ve been playing a lot of really good teams. We can be one of those good teams, we just need to do the little things well and execute better. We’re going to play the best to get better.”

Harvard will face a third non-conference team, Boston University, on Wednesday, before getting back into Ivy League play on Saturday against Cornell. Once the luster of these highly-touted matchups wears off, the Crimson will look to sustain its strong play and continue to impress its young fans.

“We’ve played four teams in the top 10,” Caples said. “The plan is that this prepares us for the rest of the Ivy run...and trains us to play at a higher level.”