Women's Soccer Drops Central Connecticut State

It’s still early in the season, but the Harvard women’s soccer team is evidently committed to doing what it needs to do jumpstart a long and successful year.

On Thursday night, under the lights at Jordan Field for the third consecutive game, the Crimson dispatched winless Central Connecticut State, 3-0, on two goals from senior forward Midge Purce to pick up its second win of the season and move to 2-1. The slumping Blue Devils fell to 0-5, having been shut out in four of their five losses.

“We’ve tried to make improvements in every game,” coach Chris Hamblin said. “We did a good job against Army, fixing some of the things that we needed to work on after the UConn game, and today, we made some nice adjustments as well.”

Purce got Harvard out to an early lead in the 11th minute off of a corner kick, then provided insurance with a 61st minute finesse shot past CCSU senior goalie Nicki Turley.

After watching the Crimson go 0-for-24 on corner kicks over its first two games, Hamblin pointed to the team’s first goal as a sign that its efforts in practice were starting to bear fruit.

Senior forward Karly Zlatic tacked on Harvard’s third score in the 78th minute for her first goal since her freshman year. Three different Crimson players tallied assists—sophomore midfielder Zayne Matulis, senior forward Rachel Garcia, and sophomore defender/midfielder Leah Mohammadi.

Garcia’s assist was her first on the season, while for the sophomores, their assists were their first points of their Harvard careers.

“One thing that’s special about this team is that no one’s ever scared, no matter who we’re playing,” Purce said. “Fear is not really in our vocabulary. This is a great group of girls. I don’t think I’ve played with such a large pool of women who have such high soccer IQ’s.”

In a game in which the home team controlled the pace of the game and fired 18 shots at the CCSU net, the major factor, for the second consecutive game, was the Crimson’s ability to put up a near lights-out defensive performance.

The Blue Devils tallied just four shots over 90 minutes, and were not awarded a single corner kick until the 85th minute.

“Defensively, there are still some things that I want us to do better, and I think the second half was much better than the first in that regard,” Hamblin said. “So many of our tactics come from good defending, and I think that’s credit to the team, which is working hard and collectively.”

In the second half, the Harvard defense came alive, shutting down threats with an aggressive onslaught and accurate clearings. The first half performance, however, was a blemish on an otherwise solid night.

“Collectively, we were all very unhappy with the way we started the game,” Purce said. “That was the first time that we didn’t come out very hard and high-pressuring from the beginning. They pressed us really high, which was frustrating for us. I’m very proud of the way that the team handled it.”

Co-captain Lizzie Durack and sophomore Danielle Etzel split time in the net, each taking 45 minutes to record the shutout effort. The two were effective in organizing the defense and its movement and the duo only had to make three saves on the evening.

“The fact that they didn’t have a lot of action is good,” Hamblin said. “They didn’t have to make many saves, and that means that the team, from the forwards all the way down to the goalkeeper, have done their defensive job.”

Hamblin also praised Charlotte Davis for her contributions on defense. The sophomore went into the back line for her first minutes in place of junior defender Marie Becker. All told, 21 players saw action for the Crimson on Thursday night.

—Staff writer Bryan Hu can be reached at bhu01@college.harvard.edu.