Soccer to Face Off in Tourney

For 24 hours, the Harvard men’s soccer team could do nothing but wait.

Sunday’s crushing 1-0 overtime defeat to Penn in the regular-season finale left the Crimson unsure if it was going to have the opportunity to play another match this season.

Harvard (11-5, 5-2 Ivy) had finished third in the Ivy League and was far from being guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

The Crimson’s fate was out of its hands.

“It was miserable,” co-captain Michael Fucito said. “Guys were really on edge that whole day.”

That nervousness was transformed into excitement around 6:00 Monday night, when the team learned that it had been given an at-large bid to the tournament. Harvard will face No. 25 University of Massachusetts (10-7-3) in the first round tomorrow at noon in Amherst, MA.

This is the third consecutive year that the Crimson will join the field of 48 in the quest to reach the pinnacle of collegiate soccer. The team knows from experience that nothing will be easy from here on out.

A year ago, Harvard gained an at-large selection, but was upset by Central Connecticut State in the first round. In 2006, the Crimson got past the opening round, defeating Binghamton 2-1. But that would be as far as the team would get, as Harvard was soundly beaten by eventual runners-up UCLA in the second round.

This year will be no less difficult.

The Minutemen will be the favorites when the two teams take the field tomorrow.

After winning the Atlantic-10 regular season title, Massachusetts will be looking for a repeat of its tournament run in 2007 that ended with a trip to the Final Four.

“They are a team that knows how to win,” Harvard coach Jamie Clark said.

The two teams come into tomorrow’s match-up looking almost identical in the formbook.

Both the Crimson and the Minutemen enter the weekend on the back of a tough 1-0 loss that ended their respective hopes of a conference championship.

However, both squads have also won eight of their last 10 games and were playing some of their best soccer over the last month.

While the teams have not yet met this season, their game last September resulted in a 2-1 Harvard win with now-juniors Andre Akpan and Brian Grimm getting the goals.

Less encouraging for the Crimson is its record this year against other top-caliber squads. Harvard is 0-4 this season against other tournament teams, and the Crimson is using its lack of success against high-quality opponents as motivation for Saturday.

“We shouldn’t be satisfied just getting into the tournament,” Fucito warned. “[Coach Clark] stresses the fact that against the other teams in the tournament—Duke, BU, Dartmouth, Penn—we haven’t done well. So we have something to prove and it won’t be an easy road.”

Harvard is relishing its status as underdog.

“You can see from the last two years that it’s not as predictable as you would think,” junior Kwaku Nyamekye said. “Anything can happen.”

Massachusetts’ run in the tournament last year serves as proof of that. But while their 2007 performance may have come as a surprise, the Minutemen returned the bulk of the squad, and their combination of size and experience means that nobody will take them for granted in 2008.

“It was no fluke since they backed up their run last year with winning the Atlantic-10 in the regular season,” Clark said.

Massachusetts head coach Sam Koch earned Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year honors, while sophomore midfielder Ben Arikian was named the league’s best midfielder.

However, if the Crimson is to go through to the second round, getting the ball past senior goalkeeper Zack Simmons may prove to be the most difficult task. Simmons, an All-American, was named the Atlantic-10 Goalkeeper of the Year.

But the Minutemen were not the only ones picking up accolades this past week. Harvard had four players named to the all-Ivy first-team. The striking combo of Fucito and junior Andre Akpan, each with three all-Ivy selections, were joined this time by Nyamekye and senior John Stamatis on the list. Co-captain Luke Sager also took home an honorable mention.

“We think we’re talented, but believing we’re talented and then showing people that are two different things,” Clark said. “I’ve never seen the team more focused.”

Despite not winning the Ivies, this year may provide the best opportunity for the Crimson to make a serious run in the tournament given the strength of its senior class. For those who are graduating, it’s now or never.

“We’re not ready to be done,” Fucito said. “I don’t think our team has shown our best stuff yet. We need to take our play to another level.”

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.