Northeastern Too Strong For Harvard

Last night in the 36th playing of the crosstown rivalry, the Harvard field hockey team (2-5) faced Northeastern (4-4) under the lights at Jordan Field. In a seemingly one-sided affair, the Crimson was shutout by the Huskies, 4-0. This marks a five-game skid following Harvard’s 2-0 start to the season.

Throughout the majority of the game, the Crimson seemed to lack communication between players, which manifested itself in the lack of fluidity in passing of the Harvard offense. Sophomore goalie Cynthia Tassopoulos matched her season-high with 11 saves for the Crimson; however, she proved unable to hold back the Huskie offense led by Carolyn Malloy, Kaela Barker and Crystal Poland.

In the first ten minutes of play, both Harvard and Northeastern seemed evenly matched with each team showcasing its stifling defense. However, in the 12th minute of play, an untimely foul gave the Huskies a penalty corner and their first opportunity on goal.

“I think for the first 15 minutes or so, it was a really competitive game,” said Harvard field hockey coach Sue Caples. “But you know, after they went up 2-0, we kind of got into a little bit of a funk, and we got a little bit unraveled.”

Northeastern’s Barker took advantage of the penalty corner and quickly scored to put the Huskies up 1-0, with Anne-Rieke Stuhlmann and Carolyn Malloy assisting in a well-coordinated display of quick passing.

Late in the first half, Northeastern forward Malloy added two more goals to the Huskie total in a three-minute succession. The first goal was off a two-on-one break in the 22nd minute of play and the second was off a diving redirection of a pass that found the bottom right-hand corner of the net. By the half, Northeastern led by a comfortable margin of 3-0, and had only conceded one shot on goal to the Crimson.

However, coming off the break, Harvard fought back against the Huskie defense, forcing three scoring opportunities off penalty corners but proving unable to convert on these opportunities. Despite the surging Crimson offense, Northeastern’s backline ws too difficult to crack even in the second half, as it allowed only four Harvard shots in the period and tilted the final shot total in favor of the Huskies, 19-5.

“In the second half we had some good opportunities,” Caples said. “We were brilliant at times, but it was like one and done. We didn’t sustain it, and we need to find some consistency in our play. This is a sport where you sometimes don’t get a lot of opportunities, so we need to be able to cash in when we get them.”

Northeastern closed out the game in the 52nd minute of play with a one-timer goal by Poland assisted by Lindsay Bennet, to bring the final tally to 4-0.

In the course of the game, Harvard’s leading scorer, senior Chloe Keating, had to leave the field due to injury.

After 17 minutes of play, Keating was substituted out for sophomore Nina Kucharczyk, and did not return in the second half.

“Not having some key players out there on the field today…not having Chloe [Keating] made a big difference for us,” Caples said, “especially when we did not have her presence and leadership out there on the field.”

Despite the Crimson’s disappointing outing against Northeastern, the team as a whole remains optimistic about its prospects in Ivy League play.

“We have been playing strong teams in the northeast, like Maine, Vermont, and UNH,” Tassopoulos said, “and all of this has been very good competition for us to prepare for the Ivy Leagues, because they are stronger or evenly matched against the Ivy teams. But what happened on the field tonight is also going prepare us for the next game as well.”

Harvard will spend the remainder of the week regrouping in time for its second Ivy League matchup against Penn this weekend, and Tassopoulos has no doubt the Crimson will come out to battle.

“I think we are ready [for Penn]. We had a close one against Yale, and we need an Ivy win under our belt. We are going to go out on the field turf, get some touches, get a feel for the different surface, and also get our mentality a little stronger so we can take it to Penn.”