Women's Soccer Rolling Toward the Ivy

Crimson starts off the year on right foot with a 5-2-1 overall record and 3-0 in the Ivy League

Women's soccer opened its season on Friday, Sept. 11, against the University of New Hampshire. In her first game back in a Harvard uniform after sitting out the 1997 season, senior Emily Stauffer made her presence felt by figuring in on all three of the Crimson tallies as Harvard prevailed 3-0. Stauffer got Harvard on the board just 3:31 into the game on a rocket that beat Wildcat keeper Lorien Snellings. Gina Foster '00 redirected a stopped shot by Stauffer to put Harvard up 2-0 just minutes later. In the second half, the Wildcats could not stop Stauffer as she set up classmate Naomi Miller '99 to put the game out of reach for New Hampshire in the 53rd minute. Junior keeper Anne Browning and senior Jen Burney shared the shutout.

Youth prevailed on Youth Soccer Day at Ohiri Field as a young Penn State team fought their way past a veteran-laden Harvard in a 2-1 win on Sept. 13. The Crimson, hosting a Youth Soccer Day for area children, got on the board early as Beth Zotter '00 got the ball past the outstretched arms of Penn State's freshman keeper Emily Oleksiuk. The Nittany Lions scored the equalizer at 28:25 as Courtney Lawson knocked a rebounded shot in an open net after Harvard goalie Browning was stuck in a pile of downed players after making the initial save. Penn State freshman Erin Cochran took a feed inside the box for the go-ahead goal with 1:11 to play in the first half. The second stanza featured a number of great saves on both ends of the field, with neither team scoring. Harvard's Browning finished with nine saves, while Oleksiuk had 11 for the 16th-ranked Penn State team.

The Crimson tangled with another ranked team just three days later, as they hopped a bus to Hartford, Conn., to take on the Hawks. A very even 90 minutes of soccer was spoiled for the Crimson by a 28-yard strike by Signe Anderson that soared just over the head of Browning in the 64th minute to give the University of Hartford the 1-0 victory. The game was not without scoring chances for both teams, but both goalies came up with big saves to keep the game close.

"It's certainly disappointing, but it is still early in the season," remarked head coach Tim Wheaton. "We ended up on the short end against two good teams, and it has shown us what some of our strengths are, but has also pointed out some of our weaknesses. But playing them has helped us improve and focus on our main goal, winning the Ivy League."

Harvard took the first step toward realizing that goal when it took on Columbia on Saturday, Sept. 19. An improved Columbia squad took the Crimson a bit away from its game plan, and the teams played a scoreless 108:00 before Zotter took a pass from Miller and got it past a Columbia keeper to give Harvard its first Ivy victory in the season.

"We lost control of the rhythm of the game during regulation, but we were able to regain control in the overtime," Wheaton commented. "Ivy games can be a little emotional, especially when you are the defending champion. Luckily, we were able to get the game back where we wanted it and score the game winner."

A driving rain that caused three-inch puddles on Ohiri Field postponed a matchup with Boston College, but a one-day delay in the playing of the game did nothing to derail a potent Harvard offense as the Crimson cruised to a 2-0 victory over the Eagles.

Harvard came out of the gates strong, but B.C. was able to run with the Crimson until the 35th minute. Senior fullback Jaime Chu launched a lofty shot to Miller who headed it over the outstretched arms of B.C. keeper Courtney Schaeffer from 12 yards out. The B.C. defense held tight until the 60th minute, when a barrage of shots could only be deflected so many times before Harvard's Foster finally buried it in the back of the net for the two-goal cushion. Burney extended her shutout streak to 196 minutes, working a scoreless 69:55 with two saves before making way for Meredeth Bagley '99 to pick up her first action of the year, recording two saves in 20 minutes of work.

"We finally got our act together," said Wheaton. "We kept possession of the ball, and we were playing the style that we need to play."

The Crimson again came on strong from the opening whistle in a 2-1 victory over Yale on Saturday, Sept. 26. In a classic case of "don't get mad, get even," the team avenged a 3-2 OT loss to Yale last season, Harvard's only Ivy loss since 1993.

The Crimson came out hot -- Stauffer crossed the ball in the second minute of the game to a waiting Gina Foster on the left side of the net for an early 1-0 lead. Ashley Berman '00 got her first goal of the year in the 60th minute off assists from freshman Colleen Moore and Miller. Yale managed a late tally with just :14 remaining in the game. It was the first goal the Crimson had allowed in 309:04, dating back to the Hartford game.

"It was a huge win for us," Wheaton said. "Yale was also undefeated in Ivy games -- this win means that we are still in control of our own destiny. Our primary focus is, and has always been, to win the Ivy League. "

The team extended their unbeaten streak to four games as a clutch goal in regulation and a tight overtime period forced a 1-1 tie with the visiting Boston University Terriers on Sept. 29. Playing without two starters, Harvard got off to a slow start and neither team could capitalize on scoring chances in the first half. B.U. opened up the scoring in the second half when sophomore Diedre Enos took a pass from Mary Beth Magner and beat Browning on her right for a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute.

The Terriers would hold off the Harvard offense for most of the game, until the 86th minute when a corner kick was cleared out of the box to the left side by the B.U. defense. Harvard fullback Lauren Corkery '01 launched the ball back toward the net, and it sailed over the head of BU keeper Meghan Lynch for the equalizing tally. Several opportunities for an overtime goal were missed by each club, and the contest ended in a 1-1 deadlock.

The squad travelled to Pennsylvania last Saturday to tangle with a Quaker squad that had not allowed a goal all year -- 660 shutout minutes over its first seven games of the season. An own-goal put Harvard in the hole early in the second half, but freshman Colleen Moore scored her first collegiate tally in the 70th minute to not only equalize the score, but to end "The Streak" at 729 minutes. Moore's big goal set the stage for a Naomi Miller score in the 75th minute for the game-winner to send Harvard to a 3-0 mark in the Ivy League.