Women's Soccer Picks Up Second Consecutive Road Win at UNH

Playing in its fourth consecutive road game, the Harvard women’s soccer team entered Thursday looking to close out the trip with a split as it prepared to take on the University of New Hampshire.

And riding high after a victory over Providence this past Sunday, the Crimson (4-3-0) remained aggressive, putting up 14 shots en route to a 2-1 victory.

Senior forward Karly Zlatic proved to be the Harvard hero, scoring the winning goal in the 72nd minute off an assist from sophomore midfielder Zayne Matulis.

“Our mindset was to keep the momentum going from our last win against Providence,” co-captain Carly Rotatori said. “[The win] feels great, especially on the road and right before we hit our first Ivy League game against Penn next weekend.”

Harvard spent the final minutes of the game vigorously defending its lead. As a result, save for one shot in the 84th minute, UNH (3-3-2) was never able to pose a serious threat late.

Last week’s Ivy League Co-Player of the Week, Midge Purce, set up the winning strike with her speed on the left side, passing the ball off to Matulis just outside the penalty box as she began to draw defenders.

Matulis completed the play with a dump pass to Zlatic, who was able to shove the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.

“UNH sat in defensively on us by playing a 4-5-1,” Rotatori said. “Having to solve that problem, learn from our mistakes on the fly, and play much better in the second half was an important challenge for us to both face and figure out.”

Senior goalie Lizzie Durack, coming back from two consecutive absences, played the second half and made two saves, while sophomore Danielle Etzel started the game and allowed UNH’s lone goal in the 22nd minute.

Despite dropping the first two games of its road trip, the Crimson now sits one game above .500 having capped the stretch with two consecutive wins away from home.

“I don’t think we were necessarily worried,” Harvard coach Chris Hamblin said. “We had a game plan, a lot of things we’ve been working on.”

Nonetheless, Hamblin needed to prepare for a talented Wildcat team. Senior goalie Mimi Borkan, who made six saves on Thursday, entered the contest sporting a 1.05 goals allowed average.

Meanwhile, junior forward and midfielder Brooke Murphy began the week with four goals and one America East Player of the Week nod to her name so far this season.

Murphy was able to add one more to that total on Thursday, tying the game at one midway through the first half, but her efforts ultimately would not be enough to lead her team to a win.

Senior forward Joan Fleischman scored an early goal for Harvard when she converted 13 minutes into the game off a pass from junior midfielder Dani Stollar.

Purce, Harvard’s leading scorer this season, also propelled the offense, swiftly driving down the field to take six of the Crimson’s 14 shots and five of the team’s eight shots on goal.

On the other end, the Crimson was able to shut down UNH’s style of play for most of the night, holding the Wildcats to just four shots in total.

“I think UNH played a counterattack style,” Hamblin said. “They wound up getting numbers behind the ball and trying to counter-attack when they could. We did a nice job moving the ball, and we really did penetrate their set-up.”

“[We wanted] to work on a couple things we pin-pointed from [the win against Providence] that we needed to change,” Rotatori added. “Moving the ball more quickly, going forward, and keeping good defensive and attacking shape in the midfield.”