NOTEBOOK: Princeton Plays Physically, Dominates Ball to No Avail

The Ivy League is proving to be a conference full of very evenly-matched teams.

Against Princeton on Saturday at Soldiers Field Soccer/Lacrosse Stadium, it took the Crimson’s best effort for it to walk away with a victory against a team that already had three league losses on the season.

But the Tigers played beyond their league standing, performing as if everything was on the line, defending very well and physically letting Harvard know that they would not go down easy. Princeton committed 12 fouls, and three of its players received yellow cards on the match.

Harvard responded with nine fouls of its own—its second-highest total in league play this season—but, as has been the norm this season, received no cautions from the referee.

“I didn’t like that we gave up so many fouls, especially in the second half,” Crimson coach Ray Leone said. “If you’re moving your feet, you’re not fouling that much, and I thought we struggled a little bit [with that].”

But Harvard refused to let the rough play affect its overall game plan.

WITHSTANDING THE BARRAGE

The home team instead let its goal-scoring do the talking, converting two of its five chances on goal while the visitors could only put away one of four. The Tigers out-shot Harvard, 15-7.

It was the second straight week in Ivy play that the Crimson had fewer attempts than the team it hosted. While Harvard built a one-goal cushion in the first half thanks to its good control of possession, it was Princeton who went into halftime with a 7-4 shot advantage.

“It felt good being up 1-0, but obviously, they’re a great team,” co-captain Melanie Baskind said. “We just talked [during halftime] about converting on the chances we were getting on the flanks, but we were having some trouble getting the ball back and making dangerous runs in the box.”

The Tigers came out of the break with clear intentions of finding the equalizer. They not only upped the offensive pressure but also dominated overall possession, keeping the host in its own half for much of the second period. It was only on a counter-attack that Harvard built a 2-0 advantage, and after the score, the Crimson retreated back to its defensive stance.

The visitors were doing many things right but lacked the scoring touch they had demonstrated over the past four games. During that stretch, Princeton scored 16 goals—three of by striker Jen Hoy, who had the Tigers’ lone tally of Saturday’s game. The rest of the Princeton attack was off-target, sending the ball wide of the net on chances that could have been put away.

Luckily for the home team, accuracy was not an issue for rookie Mai Le, whose volley from the edge of the 18-yard box flew near the right post and evaded the leaping dive of Tiger goalkeeper Kristin Watson. After 28 minutes of Crimson-dominated possession, the goal was well-deserved.

Though Harvard’s two-goal lead was cut in half in the final minutes of the game, the Crimson knew that it had to control possession to run out the clock. That’s exactly what it did, frustrating Princeton to no end.

“Props to them for not giving up,” Baskind said. “They had a ton of opportunities, so for them to finish one, I don’t think it was too surprising. But at that point, we were just focused on how we were going to close out this game.”

LEADING THE PACK

After finishing second on the team last season with 22 points, a lot of expectations were set on co-captain Melanie Baskind, one of the few veterans left in the Crimson attack.

The game against Princeton once again showed why the senior is so important to the success of the team.

To start the second half, Leone rested the starter, who had run around Princeton’s defense for most of the first half, highlighted by a neat move near the net that left a defender stumbling behind.

The Tigers took advantage of the Crimson’s key playmaker’s absence, keeping freshman goalkeeper Bethany Kanten busy with shot after shot.

But the second goal came once Baskind was inserted back into the lineup over 10 minutes into the period.

A quality outlet pass to rookie Meg Casscells-Hamby freed the midfielder forward and instead of taking the shot, Casscells-Hamby selflessly passed it off to a sprinting Baskind for the easy score. The two speedsters were too much for the Princeton defense to handle.

With two games left in the campaign, the senior has a good chance of adding to her current 21 points—which lead the Ivy League—and exceeding last year’s total. With most of the plays involving her feet, Baskind will definitely have a say in the season’s final outcome.

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.