Crimson Edges Out Quakers in Ivy League Opener

During the Harvard women’s soccer team’s preseason, whenever the opposing team scored first, the Crimson would lose.

That all changed on Saturday when Harvard (2-5-0, 1-0 Ivy) faced Ancient Eight rival Penn (3-2-2, 1-0 Ivy) at home to start the Ivy League season. While the Quakers scored first and last, at the 12- and 70-minute marks respectively, Harvard took the middle by charge, burying three shots in the net to beat Penn, 3-2.

“I was so happy and excited,” senior goalkeeper Lauren Mann said. “I had no doubt that we [were] going to win. Still, after the final whistle blew, it was a great feeling that the team had worked hard the whole game.”

That hard work began right at kickoff, as the Quakers took control of the ball, firing their first shot three minutes into play. But Harvard reclaimed possession and took its first shot six minutes later with a wide header from freshman Alexandra Conigliaro.

As Penn goalie Caroline Williams punted the ball, the Quakers’ Laura Yu sent a pass to standout forward Jessica Fuccello, who shot the ball past Mann to tally up the first score of the game. Fuccello leads the league with nine goals this season, and 29 career shots.

“After the first goal, we all brought it in together as a team,” said Harvard junior forward Katherine Sheeleigh, who leads the Crimson with two goals this season. “We were prepared that they were going to score, and it was fine. We were confident that we could win because we had the rhythm of the game at that point.”

Harvard responded 12 minutes later after a pass by Conigliaro set up a scoring shot for senior Christina Hagner, her first of the season.

With the score tied, Harvard’s backline prepared for Penn’s retaliation, with freshman defender Taryn Kurcz and senior co-captain Gina Wideroff focused on picking up the ball before the Quakers’ Fuccello could touch it.

“The defense knew how Fuccello can be, so we made sure to know where she was at all times during the game ,and we kept her contained,” Mann said.

The middle of the match played out as a battle between Harvard’s offense and Williams, as the Crimson outshot the Quakers, 9-4, in the first half. With four minutes in the half, Williamson let another goal slip through as Harvard sophomore Melanie Baskind converted a pass from Sheeleigh into her first goal of the season.

With Harvard up 2-1 at the half, the Crimson knew Penn would come out of the break with retribution on its mind.

“We knew Penn was going to come out with a lot of intensity, so we knew we needed to match that and even be better than that,” Mann said.

But Harvard emerged from halftime aggressively, with Sheeleigh taking the first three shots of the half—two wide and one saved by Williamson. The next 45 minutes played out relatively equally, with each team attempting nine shots and each team scoring one apiece in the frame.

Harvard’s third goal came off of a penalty kick by senior Lizzy Nichols after Penn pulled Sheeleigh down in the box six minutes into the half.

The Quakers responded with a shot from Theresa Yankovich to make the score 3-2 in Harvard’s favor.

Unlike the past two years, where Penn beat the Crimson by one and two goals respectively, the Quakers could not convert another goal to force overtime, letting Harvard win with a final score of 3-2.

Not only did Saturday’s game provide the Crimson with a measure of retribution against Penn, but it was also a relief after a tough preseason saw the team only win one game against New Hampshire earlier in the month.

“We played tough games in preseason, and that was all to lead up and get us ready for these Ivy League games,” Mann said. “We took everything we learned from these games and just applied it on Saturday.”

Using the past games as building blocks, Sheeleigh claimed the team had finally learned to play together, play efficiently, and play with strong effort.

“We played to the ability that we knew we could, and we really came together as a team this game,” she said. “It was crucial for us because it showed everyone that we can do this, we can have a successful season, and we are good enough to be competing and winning games.”

Going into next week, the Crimson will face Holy Cross on Tuesday as another tune-up before confronting the Bulldogs of Yale next Saturday and Fairfield on Sunday.

“Now we have to do that all over again every single Ivy League game to be as successful as we were last year,” Sheeleigh said.

Mann put it in basic terms.

“We just have got to keep it rolling.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.