Corners Hurt Field Hockey

Last night the Harvard field hockey team held Connecticut to five penalty corners for the game—hardly a fatal defensive performance in usual circumstances.

Yet because UConn earned those corners at such critical stages of the game and executed them so well, it was five corners too many.

The Huskies topped the Crimson, 3-2, in a game where all five goals were scored off corners. Harvard (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) never led and fell to 2-22-2 all-time against UConn (2-5).

After allowing the Huskies to take a 2-1 lead with 7:34 left, the Crimson rallied to win a corner of its own and set up sophomore Shelley Maasdorp for a drive to tie the game at 2-2 with 5:00 remaining.

But the comeback would be for naught as three minutes later the Crimson gave up another corner, another goal and another golden opportunity to end a losing streak to UConn that dates back to 1991.

Caples was left brooding over the turnovers down the stretch that led to the corners.

“We need to take better care of the ball in pressure situations,” Caples said. “I think we tried to force a little bit too much.”

The Huskies’ game-winner came from Beckie Helwig, who tripled her season’s scoring total with two goals last night. The score came as Crimson flyer Jen Ahn blocked the intial shot, but it deflected right to Helwig, who was left unmarked with a clear outside shot on net.

“It was a good reaction on that offender’s part and she just got a lot of force behind that ball,” said Harvard junior goalkeeper Katie Zacarian. “It was just a big change in angle and a really hard shot on goal.”

Harvard rallied in a bid to tie the game for third time in the final minutes. Maasdorp had the best chance when she got a shot from inside the circle past the Huskies’ goaltender, but several UConn defenders had packed the net and the ball never came close to the goal line.

The Crimson possessed the ball for the majority of the game, but generally struggled to connect well on passes deep in the UConn end, where the Huskies had numbers. On the few occasions the Huskies did successfully win the ball and attack, they earned corners and made the most of their opportunities.

Up until last night, the majority of UConn’s offense had come from sophomore Lauren Henderson, a Zimbabwean like the Crimson’s Maasdorp. Henderson struggled to score with Ahn shadowing her all day, but she found the net with a lethal drive on a penalty corner for the Huskies’ second goal.

UConn started off the game’s scoring at the 22:20 mark in the first half when Helwig deflected in a rebound off the initial drive. The Crimson tied the game just 3:35 later on a corner when it used an option to junior Kate McDavitt. The goal was credited to younger sister freshman Jen McDavitt for a deflection.

With Maasdorp’s drive that tied the game in the second half, the Crimson finished with an efficient two goals on eight penalty corners, strong numbers that were overshadowed by UConn’s three goals on the five corners—two of which came in succession.

So for all the positives that came out of yesterday’s game, it was still nevertheless a missed opportunity for the Crimson. Harvard captain Katie Scott acknowledged that the Crimson was at disadvantage because it only had two games under its belt entering tongiht while the Huskies had six—the last two being against top ten national competition.

“I think we played okay, but we also know we can play better,” Scott said. “We’re waiting for Yale [on Saturday] to show it.”

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.