Women Booters Avenge Yale Loss

One year ago, the Yale women's soccer team humbled Harvard by a 20 score in what was one of the Crimson's toughest losses of the season.

When Saturday's rematch started, the Crimson looked like a team seeking revenge, striving extra hard for loose balls and pummeling the Eli net with a ton of good scoring opportunities.

When the smoke finally cleared 90 minutes later, Harvard (5-2-2 overall, 3-0-1 Ivy) had scored a season-high four goals en route to a 4-2 sinking of Yale (3-9-0, 0-4-0) at Ohiri Field.

"We're not really all that fond of Yale," sophomore Dana Tenser said. "It definitely was a sense of revenge. We couldn't have a letdown again."

That was a mild way of putting it.

Some of the usually mild-mannered Harvard fans (relatives of the players, friends, etc.) were calling for nothing but "blood and guts" to spew out of the Eli players.

And that's what they got, figuratively, early in the match. Two early first-half goals gave the Crimson a 25-0 lead which it would never relinquish.

The scoring opened when freshman Keren Gudeman crossed the ball to Tenser to the right of Yale goalie Caroline Haist, but Haist blocked Tenser's drive with the tip of her hand.

Senior Sara Simmons was in perfect position for the rebound, and she lofted the ball over the fallen Haist and into the net 6:01 in.

"Well, it was teed up for me pretty nicely," Simmons admitted. "It was definitely a group effort."

Eight minutes later, the Elis were shaking their heads again.

Freshman midfielder Emily Stauffer made an almost end-to-end rush down the left side of the field, while Tenser had beaten her defender down the right side to create a two-on-one break.

Stauffer took the shot herself and deposited a perfect ball into the upper right corner to give Harvard a 2-0 lead less than 15 minutes into the match.

The Crimson continued to put on the pressure but it caught several bad breaks. With nine minutes to go, junior Sara Noonan clanked a shot off the post, while Simmons deflected a Tenser cross wide right.

The toughest break, however, came in the form of Stauffer's wrist. Yale found a way to stop the swift midfielder by legally tripping her up, but Staufler landed on her wrist, fracturing it. She will miss about two weeks of action.

Whether it was the injuries or the frigid Cambridge air, Harvard came out that in the second half and gave up a goal 10:18 in on a two-person break-away.

Yale missed a chance to tie it less than three minutes later, as sophomore Amy Porter's shot sailed several feet over the Harvard net.

"We got a little lackadaisical and I think it's a function of being young," Coach Tim Wheaton said. "We're not playing for 90 minutes as intense as we should be."

But the Crimson Retaliated to go up 3-1 and when the Elis made it 3-2, Harvard scored immediately after.

Only 6:18 after Yale cut the score to 2-1, junior Reena Lawande chipped a pass ahead to senior Libby Eynon. Eynon made a 180-degree turn and ripped a bullet through Haist's hands from five yards out and in.

And 2:54 after the score became 3-2, Gudeman threaded a perfect pass that caught freshman Lindsay Minkus in full stride. Minkus went in alone on Heist and scored up high to end the scoring with 18:11 to go.

"We have a lot of depth," Wheaton said. "We said at the beginning of the year that everybody on our team can play, and everybody did."

Besides beating its most-hated opponent, Harvard kept pace with Brown, who is still undefeated in the Ivies. Should the Crimson win its final three Ivy games, then it would be league, champion.

But before its next Ivy match at Princeton on Saturday comes a tilt against New Hampshire tomorrow. It will take place at at Ohiri Field at 3:30.

"Beating Yale meant a lot to everybody," Lawande said. "We're on track to do really well in the Ivy League." Harvard  4 Yale  2