Crimson Drops Big Red To Move Into Tie for First Place

Despite losing twice two weekends ago, Harvard’s field hockey team came back Saturday and defended its goal—both literally and figuratively—as it beat Cornell, 3-1, to advance into a five-way tie for first place in the Ivy standings.

The Crimson (7-5, 3-1 Ivy) boasted a balanced attack throughout the match, relying on tallies by three different players. And although Harvard was out-shot by the Big Red (5-7, 0-4), 17-12, the Crimson was able to snatch its third consecutive Ivy win in Ithaca, N.Y.

Freshman Sydney Jenkins paced the Crimson offense with a goal and an assist, while co-captain Georgia McGillivray and freshman Noel Painter rounded out the scoring.

“I thought it was a really solid game,” said Painter, whose second-half score gave her a team-leading five goals on the season. “Cornell is a very tough opponent. It was definitely a physical game, but I thought that our play in the second half really showed that we are a better team, and we came out on top.”

Junior Kim Goh agreed with Painter, though she noted that the team’s pacing was slightly off.

“I think it went really well,” Goh said. “We got the result we wanted, which was really exciting, especially since right now we’re still contending for the Ivy title. But the game felt a bit rushed, and I don’t think we ever really found our flow. At the end of it, though, we were able to come out with the win.”

The game began with a slew of shots coming from the Big Red, but neither team found the back of the cage until the 33:04 mark, when McGillivray capitalized on a penalty stroke.

Holding a 1-0 lead going into the half, the Crimson set the pace for the rest of the game.

The penalty stroke did not come without a price though. On the previous play, freshman Paige Haley became tangled up with the defense, which ultimately led to a costly injury.

“[Co-captain Carly Dickson] snapped the ball up, and [Haley] was behind all the defenders,” Goh explained. “The goalie actually took her out. We’re pending diagnosis of a concussion right now, so she really took one for the team.”

The lead was short lived though, as a scramble near the start of the second half resulted in a Cornell goal, tying the game at one goal apiece.

The score came after junior goalkeeper Cynthia Tassopoulos blocked a shot from the Big Red’s Genevieve Collins, who recovered the ball.

Collins sent it straight to teammate Katherine Stone, who took advantage of the crowd in front of the goal and knocked the ball into the net.

But Harvard was not to be deterred, and with 15 minutes left in the contest, it took the lead for good. After a quick pass from Dickson, Jenkins cleared the shot into the net.

“In the second half, we created a lot more corners and really shifted the momentum,” Painter said. “The second goal from the oppositional corner [by Jenkins] was really the point of the momentum shift, and after that we just kept going.”

That they did, as Painter herself soon added to the Crimson’s total. After a missed shot by Cornell and a series of fouls, McGillivray advanced the ball from the backfield to Jenkins at midfield. From there, it took a backdoor pass to Painter to put the game away.

“I caught it behind one of the defenders,” Painter said. “It was a beautiful pass. I got it, went one-on-one with the goalie, and could just finish it off.”

Tassopoulos continued to dominate in the net, saving seven shots and allowing only one goal. Before Saturday’s match, Tassopoulos was ranked ninth in the nation with a .794 save average.

With Saturday’s victory, Harvard is now on a three-game winning streak within the Ivy League, furthering the Crimson’s hopes of taking home its first Ivy League title since 2004.

“As a team, we’re just concentrating on improving,” Painter said. “Our coach always says, ‘Get one percent better every single practice,’ and that’s what we’ve been doing. We evaluate what we’ve done, what we’ve done well, and what we need to work on for the big games ahead.”