Men's Soccer Finishes Third in Ivy League

Revenge came a little too late for the Harvard men’s soccer team (11-4-2, 4-1-2 Ivy), which closed out its regular season with a 1-0 road victory over Penn (6-9-2, 2-3-1). The win left the Crimson eligible for the Ivy League title, but wins by Princeton and Dartmouth—which split the championship—pushed Harvard to a third-place finish.

“I thought that the guys very typically worked very hard and as the game went on we continued to get better and better,” Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer said. “The group pressed really hard to get that goal…. home or road, we are really going to go after them [offensively].”

The setting at Rhodes Field was vastly different than the last time the two teams played. A year ago, Penn visited Harvard with the league title on the line. The Quakers, 2-0 victors on that night, remain the last squad to leave Cambridge with a win, after the Crimson finished a perfect 9-0 home slate last weekend against Columbia.

A year later, defense was again the story for the Crimson. Harvard had allowed more than one goal only once in six previous Ivy League contests coming in and the defense held up against a pressing Penn offense. The Quakers generated 20 shots for the game, including nine between forwards Louis Schott and Alec Neumann.

Junior goalkeeper Evan Mendez held steady all goal in game, however, earning his fourth shutout of the year with a season-high eight saves. He finished off the season with 56 saves, a new career high.

“Evan has done a great job of being a consistent voice for us in the back,” junior co-captain Mark Ashby said. “He always does a great job of organizing the defense and he seems to come up big in big games. Last night, he consistently came up with big save after big save, and it’s been a pattern over the last couple years. That’s why he is our guy in the back.”

Lehrer echoed Ashby’s praise of the junior keeper.

“Evan is fantastic with making improvements daily, looking at things to improve, knowing what his strengths are, and maintaining those as strengths,” Lehrer added. “That’s a sign more than anything else of someone who is admirably aware of what they do.”

While the defense held steady, the offense struggled to grab chances. Co-captain Kyle Henderson nearly snuck an early shot by Penn keeper Max Polkinhorne in the 22nd minute, but the Crimson was unable to generate any other substantial chances early on.

It wasn’t until late in the second half that the Crimson was able to convert. Starting in the 80th minute, the offense came to life. Consecutive shots by freshman midfielder Christian Sady and Henderson were blocked by Polkinhorne, but eight minutes late Sady was able to convert on an assist from junior Jake Freeman.

“Christian is exceptional with his passing; he is a pro-level passer as a freshman,” Lehrer said. “Any freshman who can come in and have five assists, that’s a pretty significant impact…. Christian has been a huge asset and he is only going to get better. As his defending improves, as his mentality of grittiness in how he defends improves, he is going to be one of the best players in the country.”

Unable to get the league’s automatic bid, the Crimson—which ended the season with 11 wins, its most since 2009—will likely be on the outside looking in for the NCAA Tournament. Harvard, which ranks no. 55 in the RPI, maintains a slim chance of earning an at-large bid to the 48-team tournament.

Lehrer noted that the team likely has to rise at least 10 spots in the rankings to secure an at-large bid. Although he noted that the team will likely rise after securing a solid conference road win, he was not optimistic about its chances Monday afternoon.

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.