Field Hockey Sweeps Opponents During Homestand

In a pair of matchups that featured the first Ancient Eight game of the year and a clash against a ranked team, the Harvard field hockey team left the Berylson Family Field Hockey Field with a pair of victories under its belt after defeating Yale (4-4, 0-1 Ivy) and #19 Maine (7-3, 0-0 America East).

The wins snapped a three game losing streak and brought the Crimson (4-4, 1-0 Ivy) back to .500 going into the heart of the season.

HARVARD 3, #19 MAINE 1

The Crimson capped-off a perfect weekend nearly blanking the 19th ranked Maine Black Bears on Sunday afternoon. The win moved the Crimson to 4-1 at home and dropped the Black Bears to 2-2 away.

“Playing a top-20 team, especially a team that we really struggled with last year, coming out after the win against Yale we didn’t know what to expect,” said Harvard coach Tjerk van Hewaarden. “The way we showed up and were able to get the win is well deserved with good hockey. I’m very excited by how the season is shaping up so far.”

Freshman forward Maddie Earle netted the Crimson’s first goal in the 20th minute, assisted by Harvard captain Marissa Balleza’s centering pass. Balleza scored one of her own in the 39th minute, hammering home sophomore forward Kathleen Young’s rebounded shot.

The freshman Bente van Vlijem continued her strong play, launching a firecracker from the top of the circle in the 44th minute to put Harvard on top 3-0. Hailing from Zeist, Netherlands, van Vlijem is averaging a point per game in six appearances.

“I’m a freshman, so this has been a huge transition,” said van Vlijem. “We’ve made huge progress since our first few games. Our opponents were really good that last two games, and we just crushed them. The team atmosphere is really good, and we have a lot of fun on the field, and I think that’s the most important part. Maine is a really good team, so we had to keep that focus we had in our last game. It was hard in the beginning, but we kept on going and it was really good.”

Maine spoiled Harvard’s back-to-back shutout bid with two minutes to play when Canadian captain Danielle Aviani slipped one past sophomore goalkeeper Libby Manela for the final score.

HARVARD 2, YALE 0

At a rowdy Harvard Field Hockey Stadium, the Crimson women took center-stage in the first Harvard-Yale matchup of the year, snapping a three-game skid with a 2-0 win over the rival Bulldogs on Friday night and opening its slate of Ivy League games with a victory.

The Crimson wasted no time drawing first blood, as van Vlijmen caught Yale sleeping only 31 seconds into the game. Young intercepted a lazy Bulldog pass, quickly moving it to a streaking van Vlijem, who dribbled through multiple defenders before firing a backhand laser into the bottom left corner past a diving Yale netminder Emilie Katz, who stopped 10 shots overall.

“We had a great start with the goal in 31 seconds, and then it became a typical Ivy League game,” said van Herwaarden.” Every single ball is fought for, and it becomes a matter of who wants to put in the most work. Yale is a well-coached team—very dangerous, and I’m very happy we were able to keep the clean sheet. I know we have the potential to do very well in the Ivy League.”

Earle narrowly missed off the post moments before van Vlijem struck again in the 26th minute off a penalty corner redirection assisted by junior midfielder Ellie Cookson and senior midfielder Kyla Cordrey.

“It was so exciting,” Balleza said. “We always get really pumped, and the team definitely brings in a different energy heading into Ivies…One thing we’ve struggled with in the past has been consistency, so hopefully in the future we’ll just keep doing that.”

The Crimson pitched its first shutout of the season, as Manela’s first career start in goal couldn’t have gone any smoother—throwing in an impressive 49th minute table-top save as the highlight of her performance.

Harvard dictated possession throughout the night holding the Bulldogs to just one shot, and none in the second half. The Crimson notched 18 shots overall–12 on goal–and drew 14 penalty corners to Yale’s zero. The Bulldogs’ back line was under siege wire-to-wire, as Harvard’s first Ivy League contest concluded in dominating fashion.