Holy moly!

For 79 minutes and 33 seconds, the Harvard women’s soccer team outran, out-shot, out-dribbled, out-passed, and, quite frankly, out-performed their Holy Cross counterparts. The Crimson fired off 24 shots to the Crusaders’ 13, while boasting a huge 9 to 1 advantage in corner kicks. But in the end, that niggling old coach’s admonition about the importance of playing a complete game for a full insert number of minutes here, proved shockingly true for the Crimson squad on Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 17) at Ohiri Field.

Down 1-0 with just 27 seconds remaining in regulation, the Crusaders forced sudden-death overtime with Shelby Stand’s back-to-the-net, wrap-around-shot from inside the Harvard box. Then, less than three minutes into the extra session, freshman Stand one-timed a shot past Crimson keeper Lauren Mann ’10 to seal the deal, 2-1. Talk about hanging in there.

Harvard falls to 3-10-1 (2-2 Ivy) with the loss while Holy Cross improves to 4-11-2. Currently tied for fourth in the Ivies with Yale, the Crimson next play Princeton in New Jersey this Saturday (Oct. 21). That match will mark Harvard’s third-to-last of the season.

On the afternoon, it was another freshman – Kelli Okuji of Harvard – that provided the only other goal. Okuji managed to punch home her own rebound off Holy Cross keeper Jessica Stone at the 55:06 mark of the second half to score the go-ahead goal (and her first collegiate tally).

Between the pipes, Stone was sensational for the visitors, managing 14 saves. Harvard’s Mann, meanwhile, made six, including a sprawling save in the first half to preserve the stalemate.