Harvard Comes Up Short Against Wildcats

A 60-minute game can come down to just one second. This was the case for Harvard women’s lacrosse yesterday, when, with one second left on the clock sophomore Jessica Halpern fired the ball into the back of the net, bringing the Crimson back into the game with a score of 9-9 and forcing the contest into overtime.

Harvard women’s lacrosse battled to the last whistle yesterday against No.13 New Hampshire on Cumnock Turf. In a relentless and resilient effort by the Crimson (2-2), Harvard barely fell to the Wildcats (5-1). At the end of regulation play, the Crimson was tied with New Hampshire 9-9 but came up short 9-11 in a series of two three-minute overtimes.

“We were really excited and really pumped up, and I don’t think they expected us to be as competitive as we were today,” freshman Tyler Petropulous said.

The wildcats came out with enthusiasm in the beginning of the game, with senior Sarah Van Bargen recording two goals within the first minute of play. Harvard dug itself out, though, with goals by senior Kaitlin Martin and sophomore Jess Halpern to tie the game. Throughout the game, the score was tied six times.

At halftime the score was 5-7 as the Crimson found itself down by two goals. Freshman goalie Kerry Clarke came up big in the second half with crucial saves, allowing Harvard to focus on its offense, and the Crimson soon led the Wildcats 8-7 with eleven minutes left in regulation.

“Clarke came up with a bunch of amazing saves.” Halpern said. “She was very good at making saves and clearing the ball really quickly so we could get it to our flanks and attack at speed.”

But Harvard had some trouble in its offensive zone with turnovers, and New Hampshire capitalized on the Crimson’s unforced errors with lightning quick counters up the field.

Harvard was able to hold off the Wildcat onslaught for a while with good defensive cover and colossal saves by Clarke. But after a series of nice passes and quality possessions by UNH, the Wildcats scored to bring the game to an 8-8 tie.

Harvard did not let down and kept the pressure on the Wildcats, but New Hampshire equaled the Crimson’s intensity in a back-and-forth battle. Van Barger split two Harvard defenders with a spin move and beat Clarke low to establish a one-goal lead 8-9 for UNH.

With two minutes left in the contest, Harvard needed to win possession to have a chance at winning the game. In the last minute of play, the Crimson finally found the ball and ran to goal.

“When we were down 9-8 with two and a half minutes left, UNH had the ball almost playing keep away,” Halpern said, “but Tyler Petropulous got the ball [from the Wildcats] with a minute left to give us the drive to tie the game.”

Shortly after Petropolous dished to one of her teammates, UNH committed a foul with nine seconds left, awarding Harvard an eight meter shot. The shot went wide, but Halpern regained possession to score in the last second of regulation.

After a five-minute break, the match jumped into the two extra frames, where the Crimson hoped to capitalize on its newly found energy.

“We wanted to carry the momentum from the end of the game into the last six minutes.” Halpern said. “We wanted to stay composed and not force any shorts or cause careless turnovers.”

Less than two minutes in, Harvard committed a costly foul, and UNH converted its eight meter shot to make the score 9-10. Immediately off the restart, Petropulous won control of the draw, placing Harvard in great position to finish the first overtime. Martin took the last shot with three seconds left, but ultimately did not put it away.

In the next three-minute segment, Petropulous controlled the draw again, but the Wildcats overpowered the Crimson, adding an insurance goal with only ten seconds left to seal the match.

The hard-fought game against such a highly ranked opponent left Harvard optimistic and looking forward to the rest of the season.

“We were solid all around,” Petropulous said, “and those little things that we missed are what we need to work on, but overall we worked together as a team and that is what will make us successful later on.”