Crimson Starts Strong, Stumbles to Tie Against LIU

When the final whistle brought an end to the Harvard women’s soccer team’s season opener against Long Island University on Friday, both teams walked off the field with the same result, but only one team was celebrating.

The Crimson players were in no mood to rejoice after letting a two-goal lead evaporate late in the second half, leading to a 2-2 draw in their first game at the new Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium.

“It was great to score a couple of goals, but it looked like we hadn’t played,” Harvard coach Ray Leone said. “It’s going to take us some time to get our rhythm together. I’m satisfied with the effort—obviously not the performance—but that will come.”

After two early scores from freshman Peyton Johnson and junior Melanie Baskind and solid defense throughout the first 60 minutes, the Crimson looked to be in control. But late in the second period, things began to unravel quickly for Harvard as the Blackbirds (3-1-1) scored back-to-back goals in less than a minute to even the score with 14 minutes left on the clock.

While both teams had scoring opportunities at the end of regulation and in overtime, neither team was able to convert, leading to the draw—the Crimson’s first since its 2009 season opener.

The squad got its offensive spark from an unlikely source, as Johnson—a rookie defender—helped account for both of Harvard’s goals.

Johnson got the scoring started just seven minutes into the contest, taking a lead pass from junior Patty Yau along the left side of the box, then lobbing it over Long Island goalie Jennifer Bannon into the right corner of the net to give the Crimson the 1-0 lead.

10 minutes later, Johnson contributed to another score, this time by dishing out her first assist. Johnson received the ball near midfield off a Long Island turnover and then sent a long pass ahead to co-captain Katherine Sheeleigh as she streaked toward the goal. Sheeleigh—the Crimson’s leading scorer from 2009—dribbled the ball toward the goal then crossed it in front of the goal to Baskind, who finished the score.

Defensively, Harvard also held strong for the first three quarters of the contest, despite missing two of its starting defenders due to injury.

Rookie defenders Claudia Haeussler and Johnson along with sophomore goalkeeper AJ Millet—who finished with eight saves—made their collegiate debuts, helping to keep Long Island off the scoreboard for nearly 75 minutes.

“It was their first game, but you really couldn’t tell,” Leone said. “I think that they showed good confidence, so promising things for the rest of the season for them.”

But after Long Island’s first 15 shot attempts failed to reach the back of the net—including one that ricocheted off the crossbar early in the second period—Nikki Labo managed to convert the first score for the Blackbirds.

Labo headed a cross from Sarah Laughlin past Millet, bringing her team within one. Long Island evened it at two 59 seconds later, this time courtesy of forward Toni Smith. Coming up with possession deep in Crimson territory, Smith raced down the left side of the field and booted it into the top left corner of the cage for the equalizer.

“They were good on their set pieces and they were capitalizing on them,” Leone said. “Also, I think the emotion changed on their side and we didn’t match it.”

Meanwhile, the Harvard offense, which had flowed well in the early going, was coming to a standstill.

“We were just sort of sitting on our heels,” co-captain Gina Wideroff said. “We weren’t finding our forwards and our midfielders like we were at the beginning of the half and weren’t using our attack to get forward.”

But with the score tied, the Crimson caught a second wind late in regulation that carried into overtime, as Harvard outshot the Blackbirds, 4-3, in the extra period after being outshot, 19-9, in regulation. But the Crimson failed to convert on its last four shot attempts, two of which were stopped by the Long Island goalkeeper.

Millet also managed to send away two shots in the extra period—including a breakaway attempt from Smith—to help preserve the 2-2 tie.

“Overtime was just unlucky,” Wideroff said. “We couldn’t find a goal.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.