Field Hockey Wins On Senior Day

The Harvard field hockey team could not quite get a handle on Dartmouth on Saturday, but bounced back against the University of Vermont on Sunday, coming out victorious on Senior Day in the Crimson’s last home game of the season.

HARVARD 4, VERMONT 0

On Sunday, Harvard (7-9, 1-5 Ivy) grabbed the early lead against the University of Vermont and never let go of it.

Harvard outshot the Catamounts (0-19, 0-5 American East) 24 shots to 5 and topped Vermont, 4-0.

Vermont was unable to read Harvard’s attack for the majority of the game. The Crimson capitalized less than five minutes into the game on an unassisted reverse chip shot by sophomore Elizabeth Jacobson.

Harvard did not let up with the early advantage. Junior Noel Painter and freshman Marissa Balleza joined Jacobson, each putting a point on the board before the end of the opening half. Even though her team took a lead into half, Jacobson acknowledged there was an attitude shift after half-time.

“It was a bit low energy in the first half,” Jacobson said, “We definitely stepped it up in the second half. We definitely picked up the pace.”

Balleza found the back of the net again on a corner shot assisted by Jacobson to put to rest any doubts.

“We played with the mentality that we weren’t ahead,” Jacobson said. “That allowed us to keep going in the second half.”

The defense stonewalled the Catamount offense, barely allowing Vermont to push the ball past the 50-yard line for the majority of the game. When the Catamounts did manage to get looks towards goal, senior goaltender Jenn Hatfield came up with big saves to keep Vermont scoreless.

After the game, the team honored its six seniors: Hatfield, Christy Haughey, Rebecca Houser, Bridget McGillivray, Caroline McNeill and Rachel Rosenfeld.

“We are going to miss [the seniors] so much,” Jacobson said. “It was great to see them all in, playing their hardest. The fact that we were able to get the win on Senior Day was so important.”

DARTMOUTH 4, HARVARD 2

A day earlier, the Crimson faced the Big Green (7-8, 3-3 Ivy) in its second-to-last Ivy League competition, and the contest was tight in the early goings.

But late in the first half Dartmouth earned back-to-back corners, with the second proving successful as Eliza Becker tucked the ball into the upper right corner of the net, giving Dartmouth a single-goal lead over Harvard.

But the Crimson responded four minutes later.

“I went around my defender and I literally had 10 feet in front of me,” McGillivray said.  “At first I was going to pass it, but then I saw that nobody was pressuring me so I just took the shot.”

Freshman Marissa Balleza followed up with a powerful shot with 11 minutes to go but missed the lower right-hand corner by inches.

With fewer than 10 minutes to go in the first half, the Big Green buried another goal.  But soon after, Balleza succeeded in getting the ball away from Dartmouth’s goalie and putting it into the cage to knot the score at two heading into the half.

In the second half, Harvard made many attempts to add a goal.  Balleza had a close miss 10 minutes into the second period with the ball flew just over the top of Dartmouth’s cage.

12 minutes into the second half, Dartmouth earned a penalty and was able to capitalize on the opportunity, improving to a 3-2 lead over the Crimson.

“They were getting a lot of two-v-ones against our defenders, and they got a lot of short corners which they were able to score off of,” McGillivray said.  “I think we let their center defender have too much time with the ball as well.”

Harvard was not able to get another goal on the afternoon, though the team saw a shot hit the side post about five minutes later.

Dartmouth scored again with about 16 minutes to go in the second half, making the final score 4-2.

“We let them outwork us, and it [was] really frustrating,” McGillivray said.

“I think we just sat back after it was tied and we let them get way too many offensive plays against us and missed way to many opportunities in the circle.”