Field Hockey's Early Energy Disappears at Game's End

BOSTON, Mass.—Junior Shelley Maasdorp’s laser-beam one timer off a penalty corner capped nearly eight minutes of spirited, dominant play by the No. 12 Harvard field hockey team to start its game against No. 16 Northeastern at Sweeney Field.

But the Crimson couldn’t sustain its early spark and found the last 62 minutes significantly harder to manage.

Huskies’ (10-4, 1-0 America East) Mari Creatini broke free down the sideline and put one home in the 62nd minute—the second of two unanswered tallies—and sent Harvard (7-3, 2-0 Ivy) to its first loss in five games, 2-1.

The Crimson seemed to let its guard down after Maasdorp’s goal, and, though the women’s effort was still readily apparent, they couldn’t sustain their early energy, only rediscovering it in shorter spurts when desperation called for it.

“There were a lot of momentum shifts,” said Harvard coach Sue Caples. “[After the tying goal] we sort of relaxed a little bit. You can’t give them any room to move.”

But the Crimson gave Northeastern—and more specifically its offensive star, Creatini—all the room it needed.

Creatini, a junior forward, came into the game leading the nation in points (49), goals (20) and goals per game (1.54).

And she certainly lived up to her billing, notching not just the game-winner, but also setting up the tying goal with 5:19 left in the first half.

“We were trying to take away the direct passing lane to her,” Caples said. “[Senior] Diana [Bowen] played her tough.”

But that careful strategy proved not to be enough, as missed chances kept the game deadlocked throughout and ultimately opened the door for Creatini’s late-game heroics.

“They capitalized on their opportunities and we didn’t enough,” said senior back Jen Ahn. “We have to not give up the breakaways.”

Creatini’s goal was one of a relatively small number of legitimate scoring chances for the Huskies in a back-and-forth game, and it resulted on what Caples called a series of “defensive breakdowns.”

“It was a battle out there,” Caples said. “We played tough, we played hard. We could have done a better job of limiting turnovers, and we need to find the open player.”

Harvard scored its goal 7:46 into the game, when senior Mina Pell, as is her custom, watered the turf at her feet with her gatorade bottle prior to her penalty corner, and subsequently rocketed a pass to senior Jen Ahn, who calmly served it up to Maasdorp for the strike past Northeastern net minder Diana Nelson.

The Huskies’ equalizer came at 29:41 of the first half on a very similar play. Creatini inbounded the ball on a penalty corner to back Leigh Shea, who set up forward Sarah Webber for her fifth goal of the season.

The Crimson, ranked No. 16 in this week’s STX/NFHCA poll prior to yesterday’s contest figure to lose ground in next week’s rankings.

Harvard returns to Ivy League play this Saturday when the squad heads to Ithaca to take on Cornell.