No.4 Huskies Put Away Crimson

Under the lights at the George J. Sherman Sports Complex, the fourth-ranked University of Connecticut women’s field hockey squad stopped the Crimson dead in its tracks.

The Huskies snapped Harvard’s four-game winning streak, dropping the Crimson 2-0 yesterday night in Storr, Connecticutt.

In a 70-minute battle mostly between clashing mid-fields, the Crimson (4-2) was able to attempt only a single shot on goal, taken by junior Kayla Romanelli.

“We struggled to get the ball into the circle,” assistant coach Jemima Cameron said. “Their experience on defense really showed – we weren’t able to finish off the last [few yards] like we have been able to in the last game or two.”

The Huskies (8-1), however, created a few more scoring opportunities, keeping the Crimson goalkeeper busy. Junior Kylie Stone earned six saves on the night, allowing only two balls to sneak past on eight Huskies shots on goal and 14 total attempts.

“[Kylie] played amazingly in the net,” senior co-captain Devon Shapiro said. “She had some great saves and she really stepped up.”

With Stone anchoring the net, the entire Crimson defense, led by Shapiro, pulled together to defend against six penalty corners.

Holding the Huskies to only two goals, Harvard defense stifled multiple bids and kept its opponent’s offensive performance relatively low, as UConn tied its second-fewest goals in a game so far this season.

The first goal, just over 15 minutes in, came from the left side after the first penalty corner bid.

The score stayed at 1-0 until 20 minutes into the second frame when UConn struck again as a Huskies forward knocked in a shot off her own rebound.

Historically, the Crimson had faired well against UConn.

Harvard had a 2-2 head-to-head record against the Huskies over the past four years coming into yesterday’s game.

On top of this, UConn’s home win last night was the first for any team in the past five matchups, as the visitor had captured the previous four. The consistently close battles between well-matched opponents are especially impressive for Harvard, as these efforts are coming against one the 2006 NCAA final four teams in the Huskies.

With UConn’s strong group of returning players leading the dynamic group, this year’s match was especially challenging.

“It’s great for our team to be able to step up to a team who has that much exposure on a national level,” Cameron said. “We’re pretty proud of how the girls played tonight.”

The Crimson also entered tonight’s contest with its own set of accolades. Up until today, Harvard was one of only 11 teams nation-wide with a single loss or fewer.

Individually, Kylie Stone earned a spot on the Ivy League honor roll after her four-save performance in last week’s Holy Cross shutout.

Kicking off her college career, freshman Maggie McVeigh was named Ivy League Rookie of Week after a goal and assist in the 3-2 win over Pacific. Also shining in the league is junior Tami Jafar, who was last week’s Ivy League Player of the Week.

Sporting multiple honors, Harvard traveled to Storr, Connecticut with energy and momentum.

Its efforts fell just short in last night’s competitive contest.

“It was a very good game and it was definitely a battle,” Shapiro said. “We are very happy with how we played and we’re excited to take that momentum into Saturday’s game against Brown.”

The Crimson returns home to Jordan field to face Ivy League opponent Brown at noon this Saturday.

—Staff writer Kara T. Kelley can be reached at kkelley@fas.harvard.edu