Top California Opponents Too Much for Harvard Field Hockey

Harvard field hockey travelled 3,000 miles to play its games this weekend, but the team’s troubles stayed right where they were.

The Crimson lost two games, one on Friday and one on Sunday, to drop to a 3-9 record. Its Friday game was a mismatch—No. 17 Stanford (8-3, 3-1 NorPac) beat Harvard, 6-0, thanks to a five-goal second half.

Against California (6-6, 4-0 NorPac) on Sunday, the Crimson kept the game more competitive, but two second-half goals proved too much of a deficit, and Harvard’s comeback came too little, too late in a 3-2 loss.

With its two losses in the Golden State, the Crimson has lost its last four games and nine of its last 10.

“[We have to make] sure that we have the proper build-up from the back to the front,” sophomore goalie Cynthia Tassopoulos said. “That’ll be something we work on. And another part of that is keeping the ball away from the defense.”

CALIFORNIA 3, HARVARD 2

In contrast to its game against the Cardinal, Harvard kept its game against Cal close throughout. With about seven minutes left in the first half, sophomore Emma Keller scored—the Crimson’s first goal in its last three games—to tie the contest at one.

But as had happened two days before, Harvard could not compete with a strong performance from the California team in the last 35 minutes. The Bears outshot the Crimson, 12-4, in the second half.

Tassopoulos put forth a solid performance, saving six of eight shots on goal in the last frame, but Harvard’s second goal with six minutes left wasn’t enough support for the Crimson keeper.

“She really has great communication back there,” said sophomore Nina Kucharczyk of the team’s goalie. “She really does a good job keeping the defense where they should be...She’s making a lot of high saves with her stick.”

Harvard last scored more than two goals over a month ago, when it defeated Bryant, 5-2. The team has managed just eight goals in the 10 games since then.

Keller and junior Georgia McGillivray scored the team’s two goals, giving them five and three, respectively, on the season. Senior Chloe Keating had an assist, her team-leading fifth of the year. Freshman Christy Haughey picked up her second assist this season.

For Cal, the one-goal margin is not indicative of the dominance with which it played, especially in the second half. All but one of its starters, excluding the goalie, had at least one shot on goal. The Crimson couldn’t manage its first shot until 20 minutes into the second half, though it got within one goal towards the end of the game.

“[Against] Cal, we didn’t have too many [shots], but we made sure they were goals when we did take them,” Tassopoulos said.

NO. 17 STANFORD 6, HARVARD 0

Stanford shut down Harvard’s offense, handing the team its fifth shutout in eight games.

The Cardinal jumped out of the gate, scoring in the first 90 seconds of the game. But the Crimson kept the score close for the rest of the half, though Stanford still outshot the team, 8-2, in the first 35 minutes.

Harvard’s defense couldn’t hold the nationally-ranked team in the second half, and its offense could not get anything going against a Cardinal team that has allowed more than two goals just twice this year.

“I think we had a little bit of a rough time against Stanford,” Kucharczyk said. “We played a really great first half, and then we had trouble coming back after they scored their second goal.”

Stanford took 14 shots in the second half and held the Crimson shotless in the same time period.

For the first time since last season, Tassopoulos allowed more than four goals in a game. She did manage 11 saves to tie her season high in that category.

“We played them really well in the first half—it was only 1-0,” Tassopoulos said. “I think in the second half, we got caught back on our heels, and they were able to get more scoring opportunities and, unfortunately, they were able to capitalize on pretty much all of them.”

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.