Women's Soccer Looks to Maintain Unbeaten Streak

The last time the Harvard women’s soccer team (8-3-2, 4-0 Ivy) lost a match was in the second week of September. On Saturday night at Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium, the Crimson will look to continue to do what it has done for the past 44 days: stay perfect.

On the other side of the pitch will be Princeton (5-4-4, 0-3-1), itself no stranger to perfection. Last season, the Tigers went 7-0 in the Ancient Eight, including a 3-1 beat down of the Crimson. Harvard has not gone undefeated in the Ivy League since 1999, when it ultimately lost to Boston College in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“This whole season what has made us successful has been taking one game at a time and we will treat this game no differently,” co-captain midfielder Peyton Johnson said. “A win this weekend would be just as big as any we have gotten so far and put us one step closer to our goal. One more game, one more mission to accomplish.”

If the Crimson wants to achieve the goal of Ivy League perfection, the squad will have to rely heavily on its high-octane offense. Harvard is averaging over two goals per game and has scored 14 times in its last four contests.

Johnson leads the team with six assists and has consistently sparked the offense throughout the season. Her ability to share the ball and find her teammates has led to a potent offense in the Ivy League this year.

“The more goals we’ve scored, the more confident we’ve become” Johnson said. “As a result of that, things are really clicking. We are playing together, and everything is becoming more fluid. We’ve worked on finishing in practice a lot more than in years past and now it’s showing on the field.”

One Crimson player who has had no trouble finishing this year is freshman forward Midge Purce. Purce leads the team in points and is currently second in the Ivy League in goals scored with eight. Coming off of a stellar week that earned her Honor Roll for Ivy League Player of the Week, Purce was named both Player and Rookie of the Week in the Ivy League two weeks ago.

Purce won’t be the only breakout freshmen on display Saturday night. Princeton boasts its own young gun in freshman forward Tyler Lussi. Lussi leads her squad with six goals and 16 points, and she has been the rare bright spot on a struggling Tigers squad. Lussi was a four-star recruit out of high school and has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice.

Harvard’s defense should be up to the task, as the physicality of sophomore center defensive midfielder Haley Washburn and the ironclad performance of junior defender Erika Garcia has been tough to break through this year.

Junior defender Marie Margolius has also been a bright spot for the Crimson defense, earning Ivy League Player of the Week honors following her game winning goal over Brown last weekend. Margolius tallied three points in the Crimson’s 3-1 victory, including the game-winning goal.

Three separate goalkeepers are behind Harvard’s lockdown defense—freshman Lizzie Durack, and juniors Bethany Kanten and Cheta Emba. The three have a combined .89 goals against average, with each keeper showing the ability to make big time saves.

“This group has an exceptional amount of drive and determination,” Johnson said. “We’ve been a young team and this year our determination is really showing in our ability to close out games.”

After last weekend’s win over the Bears, Harvard has been given its first full week off without a game this month. As the team approaches the home stretch of its schedule, the veterans are most certainly grateful for a little time off.

“We get to spend more time working within our team on things that we haven’t gotten to in a while” co-captain forward Elizabeth Weisman said. “Especially those things we’ve noticed in games where we’ve struggled and now we have an opportunity to take more time to fix them and address them so that we come out stronger.”

A win Saturday night would keep the Crimson atop the Ancient Eight standings. In addition, Harvard would only need to win one of its final two games to guarantee a share of the Ivy League title, which the team last won in 2011.