W. Soccer Shines in Florida

While southern Florida was battening down the hatches for Hurricane Irene, the Harvard women's soccer team blew into town and wreaked a little havoc of its own.

The No.17 Crimson (10-1-1, 4-0 Ivy), competing in the first ever Miami Invitational this past weekend, blew away Butler on Saturday 4-1 and then picked up where it left off yesterday, blanking Miami 2-0.

Despite its scoring barrage against Butler, the Crimson came out flat again against the University of Miami (9-6).

Harvard was kept off the scoreboard until the 63rd minute of play when junior forward Ashley Mattison broke the scoreless tie with a goal off an assist from the weekend's star player, sophomore forward Colleen Moore.

Moore used her breakaway speed to chase down a loose ball deep inside Miami territory and feathered a well-placed pass to Mattison.

Mattison one-timed the pass into the lower left-hand corner of the goal from about five yards out past a sprawling Miami keeper who had no chance on the play.

Moore, however, wasn't finished with her heroics just yet.

Just a minute and six seconds after setting up Mattison, Moore once again showed her everyone her incredible speed.

Blazing down the right sideline off a pass from freshman midfielder Orly Ripmaster, Moore blew past the Hurricane defense and beat Miami's sophomore goalkeeper Elizabeth Swinson one-on-one on the near side with a thundering shot into the upper right-hand corner.

Moore's insurance goal sealed a 2-0 victory for the Crimson and capped an incredible weekend for the sophomore forward.

Moore tallied a goal and an assist against both Butler and Miami and was Harvard's biggest offensive threat with six points in the teams weekend trip to the sunshine state.

Freshman goaltender Cheryl Gunther continued to shine against the Hurricanes, capturing her fifth shutout of the year, her fourth in the past five games.

On Saturday the Crimson got off to a slow start, but made up for it with a fast and furious second half.

Failing to score until the 42nd minute of the first half, when sophomore forward Caitlin Costello scored off a pass Moore, Harvard went into halftime with a narrow 1-0 lead.

However, as the storm clouds threatened above, the Crimson's freshman force opened the floodgates.

Lead by freshman forward Joey Yenne, who bagged her third and fourth goals of the season, Harvard scored twice in under three minutes to take a commanding 3-0 lead just 15 minutes into the second half.

Yenne's pair of goals on Saturday moved her into third in overall scoring in the Ivy League with four goals and five assists for 13 points.

Sparked by Amy Morrison's unassisted goal in the 76th minute of play, Butler tried to battle back, but it was too little too late.

The Bulldogs last glimmer of hope was quickly squelched when Moore put the game out of reach, beating Bulldog keeper Megan Partenheimer with just under ten minutes remaining in the game and the score 4-1.

The Crimson's blistering offense simply proved too much for an injured Bulldog defense as Harvard found the back of the net four times on eight shots.

Butler's freshman goaltender Tricia Czerniak was sidelined earlier this season with a broken finger, and the Bulldogs have been without a top-notch goaltender ever since.

Senior forward turned goaltender Megan Partenheimer had been doing an admiral job of keeping other teams' strikers at bay since Czerniak's injury, but Partenheimer hadn't seen action between the posts since her sophomore year of high school.

Harvard's win rained on Butler's parade of stellar play recently. Despite a slow start to the season, the Bulldogs were 5-1-1 since late September going into their match up with Harvard.

Allowing only one goal on the weekend trip, the Crimson defense continued its dominating play.

Along with senior co-captain Jessica Larson, Gunther and the Harvard defense have been simply unbeatable all year. In 12 games this season, the Crimson's stellar defense has allowed only seven goals, the fewest in the Ivy League.

The Harvard defense will need to remain iron tight at home this Wednesday if the Crimson hope to beat cross-town rival Boston University (8-6).

Harvard's game against BU this Wednesday is its last non-conference tune-up before it finish off the season with four straight Ivy League contests, starting next Saturday against Princeton.

The Tigers are alone in second place in the Ivy standings, and a Princeton victory next weekend would put Princeton in the driver's seat and knock the Crimson down to second in the standings.