Field Hockey Goes 0-2 in Season's Final Road Trip

In its final road swing of the season, the Harvard field hockey team came close to a win but ultimately dropped its two games over the weekend, including a 2-1 overtime nailbiter to Vermont (2-16, 0-5 America East) on Sunday in Burlington, Vt.

The Crimson (3-12, 1-5 Ivy) also fell to conference foe Dartmouth (10-5, 5-1), 4-1, in Hanover, N.H., on Saturday afternoon.

The pair of losses extended Harvard’s losing streak to a season-high seven games, but the team is not looking down, according to sophomore forward Noel Painter.

“The losing streak has been tough, and we have not been able to finish and put the ball in the net to get the results that we want,” said Painter via email because she could not be reached by phone. “We are improving every week in all areas of the game.”

The team feels it showed improvement game-to-game this weekend, too.

The Crimson had more corners than Vermont, 7-6, and was outshot, 13-12, improving its ratios from the Dartmouth game. In that contest, the Big Green tallied 16 corners to Harvard’s six and 24 shots to the Crimson’s four.

But this weekend, the improvements did not turn into a win.

VERMONT 2, HARVARD 1

The Crimson suffered a tough loss to the Catamounts in the second of Harvard’s back-to-back weekend contests.

It was a reversal of Harvard’s 2-1 home overtime win against Vermont last year—this time, on their home turf, the Catamounts came out on top.

Vermont took an early lead on freshman Molly Higgins’ goal off a deflection nine minutes into the game.

Despite the early deficit, the Crimson fought back and thought it had pulled even with Vermont. With two minutes left in the half, a Harvard attack resulted in a rebound that bounced back to freshman midfielder Madison Jung, who finished it off. But the referee called a foul because the ball hit a Crimson player’s foot, nullifying the goal.

“All it takes is a few questionable calls to change the outcome of a game,” captain Kim Goh said by email because she also could not be reached by phone. “But we’re trying to capitalize more on our opportunities so that those kinds of things don’t affect our game as much.”

As it turned out, Harvard would even the score at 1-1 just eight minutes into the second half, when junior forward Rachael Rosenfeld tallied an unassisted goal, rifling the ball into the back of the net from the middle of the circle.

The game remained knotted at one for the duration of the frame. The Crimson defense withstood nine second-half shots by the Catamounts, and co-captain goalkeeper Cynthia Tassopoulos had four critical saves.

But in the fifth minute of overtime, a Harvard foul in the circle gave Vermont a penalty stroke. Angie DeBellis shot the ball past Tassopoulos into the left side of the cage to give the Catamounts the win.

“Losing in overtime is not the way anyone wants to lose because it’s a heartbreaker,” Painter said. “It’s very disappointing, especially when it is off of a stroke.”

DARMOUTH 4, HARVARD 1

In the opening contest of the road trip, the Crimson jumped out to an early lead but ultimately wilted under the second-place Big Green’s offensive attack in a 4-1 loss.

Sophomore midfielder Caroline Code tallied her first score of the season just 1:33 into the game, rolling the ball into the net off of an assist by senior forward Emma Keller.

The goal gave Harvard its first lead since a 1-0 victory over Brown on Sept. 29, a streak stretching six games.

But the advantage would not last, as Dartmouth controlled the remainder of the game. The Big Green’s Janine Leger evened the score just three minutes after Code’s goal and added another goal in the 28th minute.

Dartmouth outshot the Crimson, 16-3, in the first period and 24-7 for the game.

The Big Green was able to sneak two more goals past Tassopoulos in the second half to put the game away as Harvard failed to strike back.