Field Hockey Snaps Losing Streak with Shutout

In a slump, it sometimes helps to just play worse teams.

Harvard field hockey ended its five-game losing streak on Saturday, defeating Penn on the road, 2-0. The victory was the Crimson’s first since Sept. 6. With the away win, its first of the year, Harvard improved to 3-5, including a 1-1 record in Ivy League competition. The loss was the fourth in a row for the Quakers (1-5, 0-2).

Neither team had many scoring chances in the game. The Crimson managed eight shots, including just three in the second half, to Penn’s seven. But of these attempts, Harvard converted on two of the three shots on goal.

“Eight isn’t a particularly high number, but a 25 percent conversion is pretty good, so I think we’re pretty happy,” sophomore Kim Goh said.

Both of the Crimson’s goals came from two of the team’s three penalty corners, an improvement in an area where the team has struggled for much of the year. Junior Georgia McGillivray scored the first late in the first half, and Harvard padded its lead with a goal from junior caption Carly Dickson in the 41st minute.

“Our big focus and one of our goals was to force a lot of corners, and we converted off of them, which was nice to see,” senior Chloe Keating said. “We kept the lead in the first half, we built on it in the second, and we didn’t shut down at all.”

The Crimson had not scored two or more goals since its last win in early September. The box score from Saturday’s game still looks sparse—only three people took more than two shots, and no one had more than one shot on goal. But even though the offense was not prolific, the team was able to get on the board early, something it had not been able to do during its recent struggles.

“We’ve traditionally been very good at working the ball from the back to the midfield, and now we’re getting on the same page as far as attacking the goal cage,” Goh said.

But in the shutout, the defense was the strongest part of Harvard’s game.

“We just didn’t have any breakdowns,” Keating said. “Typically, we play one great half or we let down for 10 to 15 minutes, and during that time, the opposing team will capitalize, but we didn’t have that this game, which is really nice.”

Throughout the Crimson’s five-game losing streak, the defensive end still ran smoothly.

Two of the losses were 1-0 defeats, and the team never allowed more than four goals in the span.

In Saturday’s game, Penn could only match Harvard’s three shots on goal.

“The defense...played really smart,” Keating said. “They didn’t let anything get by them that shouldn’t have gotten by them, and they were communicating really well and recovering really well. They just didn’t give Penn any opportunities to really capitalize off of anything.”

Sophomore goalie Cynthia Tassopoulos has not allowed more than four goals in a game since last November, when she gave up five against New Hampshire. She has a .774 save percentage this year.

On Saturday, all three of her saves came in the second half.

Both Keating and Goh also emphasized the tough transition to the different playing surface at Penn. The Crimson plays its home games on turf at Jordan Field.

“Playing on a different field condition away—sometimes that stuff can interfere with us playing our game, but we really executed well and had a great outcome,” Goh said.

The win, even against a weak Ivy League opponent in the Quakers, is a welcome change for a team that had not held the lead in any of its five consecutive losses.

“I think what we showed in our game today was persistence to execute the game plan and support each other all around the field,” Goh said.

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