Harvard Women’s Soccer Loses Nail-Biter Season Opener

Harvard women’s soccer (0-1, 0-0 Ivy) was handed a dramatic 1-2 loss in its season opener at the University of Massachusetts (2-1, 0-0).

The Crimson is coming off a strong 2024 season, but one that left room for improvement. Harvard made the Ivy League tournament, but as the fourth, and last bid. The Crimson were sent home in the semifinals by the soon-to-be champion Princeton Tigers.

The team, which is returning the bulk of its starting lineup and looking to improve on a 7-4-5 season and a 3-3-1 Ivy performance, had high hopes entering the season opener in Amherst, Massachusetts. However, the season opener mirrored the previous season, showing potential, but landing just shy of the mark. Harvard took twice as many shots as UMass, 19 to 9 respectively, including a 7 to 5 shot-on-goal advantage, but finished the first ninety minutes of the season losing 1-2.

In an exciting moment for the Crimson, kickoff marked the first time junior forward Olof Kristinsdottir had seen the pitch since her freshman year. That same year, Kristinsdottir had been the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a meaningful component to the 2023 team. Having been sidelined by injury in 2024, her return to competition this season is an exciting sign for things to come for the Crimson.

The Crimson came out to an encouraging first twenty minutes of play with sophomore forward Lauren Muniz taking two shots-on-goal to get the match started. Muniz’s first shot came at minute six mark when she broke through the UMass defensive stand and missed just left of the goalpost. Fourteen minutes later, she placed a shot in the bottom right corner of the net, which was blocked by the minutewomen freshmen keeper Leah Nisenfeld.

The next opportunity on goal came again for the Crimson when junior forward Anna Rayhill narrowly missed a header, spinning just above the crossbar.

Finally, in the 39th minute senior forward Audrey Francois tripped within the box after receiving a beautiful cross. Francois was awarded a penalty kick. After taking a lining up the shot, she lasered the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal and burned a point onto the Crimson scoreboard for the first time this season. Going into half, Harvard was up 1-0, with more time of possession and shots on goal.

Momentum flipped at the start of the second half with two quick goals by Massachusetts. First, sophomore forward Amelia Bloom put UMass on the board less than two minutes into the half with a quick tap through the middle of the goalbox. Not 12 minutes later minutewomen sophomore forward Morgan Bellamy got her foot on a pass from a corner kick that made its way past Harvard senior keeper Rhiannon Stuart.

Fourteen minutes into the second half the Crimson now had to hope to make a comeback bid, and, in the next half hour, the players gave a valiant effort. In the ensuing time Harvard had five shots on or very near goal. Additionally, Stuart had three impressive saves to keep the hope alive.

In the last 60 seconds of the game the Crimson had a dramatic four corner kicks, which got progressively closer to scoring, in movie-like fashion. The first attempt was touched by Harvard but quickly kicked out by the UMass defense. The second was placed well by sophomore defender Erin Gorden, but narrowly headed out of bounds, again by Massachusetts. Number three featured a cross and a shot-on-goal which looked good if not for the UMass defender blocking it yet again.

The final corner started when Gordon put the ball into play for a fourth time. The ball was then crossed for a header to Rayhill, who placed the ball into the box, only to have it punched out of bounds by the keeper. This punch placed the ball at the feet of Harvrard’s junior midfielder Heinsdottir Gonzalez, who took the final shot on goal which was deflected by a UMass defender yet again.

With this dramatic, 2-1 loss the Harvard women’s soccer is left with much of the same feeling the team came into the season with. They have significant potential, but will they be able to live up to it in the coming months?

Harvard returns to action Friday, August 29th at Fairfield (3-1, 0-0 MAAC), at 6:00p.m. The Crimson will look to get its first win of the young season against the more battle-tested foe. History will be on Harvard’s side as the Crimson is unbeaten in ten previous matchups with Fairland.

—Staff writer Jake Swanson can be reached at jake.swanson@thecrimson.com