Crimson To Play in Catamount Tourney

After taking the first two games of the season, Harvard field hockey looks to carry its preconference-play success into the weekend in the Sheraton Catamount Classic.

University of Vermont will host the tournament on its Burlington campus. The Crimson (2-0) will play twice, once against Maine (2-2) tomorrow and against the hosting Catamounts (1-3) on Sunday.

The last meeting between Harvard and Vermont came in 2008, and these two teams have only faced off twice since the 2005 season, splitting the contests. The Black Bears have not met the Crimson in the same period.

Harvard has outscored its opponents so far by a margin of 11-3, with five or more goals in both its games. Neither Maine nor the Catamounts have scored more than three in any game this year, though both have yet to allow more than four scores.

But the relatively easy wins so far have been far from flawless. In particular, the Crimson has made a small percentage of its shots, especially in the first half.

In last’s Saturday’s game against Holy Cross, Harvard converted only once in eleven first-half shots. In its second game, the team made just one of 14 in the first 35 minutes.

“Offensively, [our point of focus is] making sure we’re using our space very well and we’re working on our attack from the midfield up,” sophomore Cynthia Tassopoulos said.

The team has also struggled on penalty corners, scoring just three times in 20 such chances. In the first half against Bryant, Harvard failed to score on its ten chances from corners.

“Converting on penalty corners is always a goal of ours, and we work a lot on it in practice,” junior Georgia McGillivray said. “I think just keeping a forward moving [front]… will generate a lot of good goal opportunities.”

The Crimson’s performances have been stronger in the two game’s second halves, scoring on about half of such shots in both games.

“I think it’s a matter of warming up,” she said. “It’s taking a little bit of time to get into the feel of the game, so that’s really a goal for this weekend, to have that intensity… in the first half. “

So far, the defensive strength has been enough to compensate for a team that has not been able to capitalize on many of its chances. Two of the three goals that Harvard has allowed so far came early in the first half, and the third had little consequence, coming late and after the Crimson had already built a four-goal cushion.

“We’re just going to keep with our solid defensive structure and we’re working a lot on communication and making sure that everyone is on the same page to make sure that our defense stays solid,” McGillivray said.

Senior Chloe Keating has been Harvard’s leading scorer player so far with four goals—including a hat-trick against Bryant—and an assist. Sophomore Emma Keller has two goals and two assists in the early going.

In the 2009 season, Keating led the team with ten goals. Keller tied for second in the team lead with five.

Poor shooting on the part of its opponents has made the Crimson’s defensive success more attainable so far. Holy Cross and Bryant took a combined 25 shots, of which only nine were on goal. The two teams converted on a third of its on-target opportunities.

Vermont has fared better than Harvard’s competition, scoring seven times on 26 shots. Maine also has seven goals in its four games, though it has taken the team 47 shots to do so. But its opponents have been even worse—to reach the seven goal mark, the Black Bears’ competition needed 65 shots.

“What we worked on [Tuesday] at practice was a lot of our circle defense,” Tassopoulos said. “We already know that Maine has an aggressive style of play, so we’re trying to transition that into our practices.”

But McGillivray commented that scouting won’t affect how the Crimson practices or plays this weekend.

“We do a bit of scouting on both of the teams, but we’re looking to go into the weekend and play our own game and not let the other team affect what our strategy is too much,” she said.

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