Harvard Falls in First Round

The saying goes that once a player scores a first goal, the rest will follow. This was true when Harvard first visited Boston College on Sept 18, losing 4-1 to a team efficient in scoring. But on Friday night, as the Crimson (9-6-1) again arrived at the No. 7 Eagle’s (15-3-2) home turf, only one goal came. But that’s all BC would need to assure the 1-0 victory.

In the first round of the NCAA playoffs, the second appearance in two years, Harvard again fell to a ranked opponent. But the Crimson can rest assured that it held off a team that outshot it 20-1 until the 46th minute.

Only 32 seconds into the second half, Eagles junior Amy Caldwell took the ball off of a pass from teammate Victoria DiMartino and sent it behind Harvard senior goalkeeper Lauren Mann. Fortunately for Boston College, Caldwell scored the only goal of the game.

“We lost to a great team, that’s the way it goes, but not because we didn’t put in everything we had—every ounce we had,” Crimson coach Ray Leone said.

Prior to that, Harvard’s defense provided an impenetrable wall. Behind the defense, Mann was there with ten saves, proving once again why she is third in program history for career saves with 280.

“They had the offensive lead on us, but our defense held strong and made it known that it would take a lot to get by us,” Mann said.

Boston College coach Alison Kulik also emphasized the strength of Harvard’s defense and Mann, who only allowed one goal out of 20 shots. Kulik’s goalkeeper, Jillian Mastroianni, had zero saves.

“Harvard began dropping back with numbers, and we didn’t do a good job penetrating early,” Kulik said.

As the rest of the second half developed, the Crimson had trouble finding a way to get the ball into the net, or even take a shot. Melanie Baskind had the only attempt for the Crimson.

Despite the defeat, the team walked away with not just disappointment but also pride.

“Going into it, we had nothing to lose,” senior co-captaing Lizzie Nichols said. “In terms of the game itself, you have to be absolutely plugged in at every second of the game.”

For seniors Mann, Nichols, Christina Hagner, and Kelli Okuji, this final score marked the end of a long process starting from their freshman year, when the team had just lost another coach, to winning an Ivy League championship in their last year.

“The spring during my freshman year, for a period of time we didn’t have coaches, and we just worked harder than any other team we’ve ever been on and just made an unspoken pact that this was not how the next three years were going to go,” Nichols said.

Leone especially understood the importance of the senior class, his first Harvard group to graduate.

“They were the four cornerstones of this whole team, and they are going to be definitely missed for a long time,” he said.

From the changes and perseverance of their first years, the seniors aimed to emphasize resilience and togetherness throughout this past season.

“That is what has brought us to this success: facing adversity and not backing down, pushing forward and not settling,” Nichols said.

Friday’s game illustrated this ability to bounce back, especially after a disappointing 1-5-1 pre-season.

“More than a result, I wanted to see the measuring stick of how we improved, and I think we showed that,” Leone said. “We were fitter, we were crisper in how we played, and it was a good soccer game.”

In addition to individual improvement, Harvard was able to halt Boston College’s notorious attack through experience.

“We’re more played in,” Leone explained of the Crimson’s ability to hold the Eagles to one goal. “We’ve been in a lot of tough battles. I can’t even believe some of the things we have done this year.”

Continuing to push forward in tough battles, Harvard hopes to have the same success next year, now that both the sophomores and freshmen have never been without an Ivy League championship during their college career.

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.