Ryabkina Propels Harvard's Attack

When she arrived in Cambridge two and a half years ago, junior Liza Ryabkina was taken under the wing of Sarah Vaillancourt ’08-’09, one of the most talented forwards to wear a Harvard uniform.

So it was fitting that last night, Ryabkina followed in her mentor’s footsteps, becoming the first Crimson player to score four goals in a game since Vaillancourt did it last February at Cornell.

“It felt pretty incredible,” Ryabkina said. “I was just sort of taking the opportunities [that] presented themselves. I know that I can do those things in practice, so I just did them in the game.”

The winger opened scoring with less than two minutes left in the second period, slamming home a pass from senior Anna McDonald on the power play to hand Harvard the momentum heading into the break.

And from there, everything clicked for Ryabkina.

“My favorite play of the game was not any of her goals, but the pass she made to [freshman Kelsey Romatoski] on the power play right out in front,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “A lot of kids don’t see that play by the defensemen. The little things like that, that’s when you’re feeling pretty good about yourself—you’re in the zone. It’s a matter of time before things start to fall your way.”

Ryabkina hit her stride in the third period, throwing shot after shot at Boston College rookie netminder Corinne Boyles.

With 8:40 gone in the third, the junior broke through, initiating a three-goal tear in the span of five and a half minutes.

No two goals looked exactly the same: coming off a good rebound from junior linemate Kate Buesser, low on the power play, and finally on an unassisted breakaway.

“She has another gear,” Stone said. “The more she plays in that gear, the better our team’s going to be.”

Since coming back from a knee injury in November, Ryabkina has put up 15 points in 13 games—and with 10 goals on the season, she is now tied with Buesser for the team lead.

It was a career high in goals for the junior, who is making good on the raw talent she has exhibited since her freshman season.

“I wanted five,” she joked after the game. “That was my goal for the day.”

POWERED UP

Ryabkina’s two power-play goals continued a pattern of recent success for a Harvard team that has struggled with a man up all season.

The Crimson had converted just 13 percent of its power-play chances coming into last night’s contest, but the team has scored four times with the man advantage in the last three games.

Stone has been shuffling her power-play units of late, but both units on the ice in the last three games have generated chances and goals.

“I guess the main thing is that we’re not trying to tweak it all the time, but we’re not afraid to change it if it’s not working,” Stone said.

Ryabkina’s unit—with McDonald and rookies Jillian Dempsey, Josephine Pucci, and Romatoski—was the group that found the back of the net last night, capitalizing on Ryabkina’s move from the point to the baseline.

“We’re really looking to put people in the right spots,” Stone said. “Depending on who we’re playing against…we’ve had Liza high on the power play, we had her low today, it was very effective for us.”

Harvard’s other unit—co-captains Cori Bassett and Kathryn Farni, senior Randi Griffin, and juniors Leanna Coskren and Buesser—tallied two power-play goals over the weekend, demonstrating the team’s newfound and balanced man-up success.

GETTING DEFENSIVE

While the Crimson’s offense had plenty of firepower last night—taking 101 shot attempts, 51 of which reached the net—its defense stifled a young Eagles offense that is still struggling to find its identity.

“With a young team…my kids are trying to make some perfect plays where we just have to make the hard-fought play,” BC coach Katie King said. “We had a three-on-one at one point, and we tried to tic-tac-toe it instead of just getting to the net and finding the rebound.”

Harvard allowed just 15 shots on goal, and freshman goaltender Laura Bellamy turned them all away for her second career shutout.

But Bellamy’s job was made easy by her blueliners, who limited the Eagles’ time and chances in the offensive zone.

“[The defense] cut off a lot of cross-ice passes that were going to the high slot or low slot—our kids were there tonight to do it,” Stone said. “They weren’t fixated on the puck, they were playing off the puck very well.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.