Field Hockey Picks Up First Ivy Win at Brown, Falls to Quinnipiac

The Harvard field hockey team put together its first winning streak and earned its first Ivy League victory along the way, defeating Brown (2-6, 0-3 Ivy) in a tense 1-0 battle on Saturday afternoon at Brown.

But the Crimson’s streak came to an end one day later, as Harvard (3-5, 1-2 Ivy) fell to Quinnipiac, 3-1, on Sunday at Jordan Field.

QUINNIPIAC 3, HARVARD 1

In the second leg of back-to-back games, Harvard stumbled against Quinnipiac (6-4) on a drizzly Sunday at Jordan Field.

In open play, not much separated the two teams—the number of shots and penalty corners for both squads were nearly identical.

But the Bobcats enjoyed a substantial advantage in the execution of their penalty corners, scoring three goals and rarely encountering much trouble from the Crimson’s attacks.

“We knew ahead of time their corner attack is something that’s very difficult to play defense on because they use the numbers situation, and they take care of the rebounds,” coach Tjerk van Herwaarden said.

Though Harvard scored its only goal of the day off of a penalty corner, cashing in on freshman Elizabeth Jacobson’s redirection of a pass from junior Bridget McGillivray, the team was unable to muster many more serious threats to the Quinnipiac cage from their nine other penalty corner opportunities.

“We depend on [penalty corners] quite a bit [for offense],” van Herwaarden said. “It’s any given day from that perspective. We will work on it because we have to get more out of our corners.”

The Bobcats were much more clinical with their finishing. The first goal of the game came from Cate Colucci, who put a rebound in the back of the cage after two saves from co-captain Cynthia Tassopoulos.

The second Quinnipiac goal came off of a wide-open slashed effort from Amanda Danziger, and the third was a deflection to the top of the short side of the cage from Jess Rusin to put the game out of reach with under three minutes to play.

HARVARD 1, BROWN 0

After beating Bryant last Monday, the Crimson carried its momentum to Providence, as Harvard scored late and Tassopoulos recorded her second shutout of the season.

The only goal of the day came from the stick of senior forward Emma Keller, assisted by sophomore forward Noel Painter in the 65th minute.

“It was really close to the end of the game,” Painter said. “[Sophomore Caitlin] Rea got the ball in the center and she went to pass it. I got the ball and passed it to my right to Emma who [shot it] and she nutmegged her, got through the goalie’s legs and into the back of the cage.”

The Bears controlled much of the pace in the first half, outshooting the Crimson, 10-6, as Tassopoulos, who entered the weekend with the eighth best save percentage in the nation, improved on her mark of .800 by making seven saves, five of which came in the opening half.

The momentum shifted over to Harvard in the second frame, as the visitors outshot Brown 8-5 in the period. Keller, Rea, and Jacobson all led the team with three shots apiece.

“Our defense was rock solid especially against their forwards,” Painter said. “Cynthia did a great job in net, she had some really key saves that helped us get our momentum, and I think our momentum in the second half started in the backfield with their outletting and their working up through the mid[fielders] and through the forwards.”

The Crimson was able to withstand a late push by Brown, holding the Bears off on penalty corners in the final seconds of game. Brown ended up having nine total corners to Harvard’s five, and outshot the Crimson, 15-14.

Despite its losing record more than half way into the season, van Herwaarden was pleased with the progress the team has made thus far and expects positive results from its efforts soon.

“We’ve already shown significant improvement,” van Herwaarden said. “I think it’s time that we right now trust ourselves a little bit more and believe in ourselves that the improvement is there. We should consider ourselves being good enough to compete with every team in this nation.”

—Staff writer David Mazza can be reached at damazza@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Andrew R. Mooney can be reached at mooney@college.harvard.edu.