Road loss snaps win streak

The Princeton women's soccer team saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end Saturday with a 4-2 loss to league rival Harvard. Harvard (9-4-1 overall, 2-2-0 Ivy League) scored three first-half goals, and the Tigers (7-5-1, 3-1-0 Ivy League) were unable to mount enough of a comeback in the second half.

The Crimson's Lizzy Nichols put the Tigers down early. On a free kick from about 35 yards out less than a minute into play, Nichols arched the ball perfectly into the far post of the goal and past senior captain and goalkeeper Maren Dale.

This did not seem to discourage the Tigers, though, as senior co-captain and midfielder Diana Matheson answered four minutes later with her fourth goal of the season. Junior midfielder Jen Om was looking for a shot on goal but saw Matheson open. She tucked a pass inside the 18-yard box, and Matheson knocked it in just inside the right goal post.

The Crimson answered in the 17th minute when Katherine Sheeleigh had a one-on-one opportunity against Dale. She was able to push the ball just past Dale for a 2-1 lead.

Harvard's third goal of the first period came on a corner kick in the 30th minute. Harvard's Caroline Kutler put the ball in a good position, and Gina Wideroff was able to head the ball into the net.

While the Tigers led the Crimson by one in total shots at the half, Harvard's shots were far more successful — all but one of them were in the goal.

"Harvard was really good on the counterattack. They took advantage of us on transitions and executed on their set pieces," freshman midfielder Alex Valerio said. "Even though we outshot them, Harvard capitalized on the few opportunities that they had."

In the second half, Harvard came out firing again. It was Sheeleigh with another one-on-one chance against Dale in the 56th minute. While Dale did make the first save, Sheeleigh got the rebound and put it in the goal.

Freshman defender Marissa Sampias answered five minutes later with a hard shot from the 18-yard box into the upper-left corner of the goal, cutting the Crimson's lead to two.

Princeton also had a penalty kick with about five minutes to play, but Harvard keeper Lauren Mann stopped Matheson's shot when she guessed correctly and dove to her left.

"We fought throughout the game but just couldn't find the back of the net as much as we needed to," sophomore forward Vicki Anagnostopoulos said. "Once Harvard was up, they dropped everyone back, making it harder to penetrate their defense."

The Tigers did outshoot the Crimson 24-13, but Harvard continued to take better advantage of these chances, putting 10 of its shots on goal in total.

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"We had a target on our backs going into the Harvard game. When you're coming off of a seven-game win streak, everyone wants to beat you, and today, Harvard got to play the spoiler," Valerio said. "Since they had already lost two games in the Ivy League, they were desperate to get a result, and they got it."

The team will look to start a new winning streak against Cornell this Saturday.

"We just need to clean up what we create," Om said. "We had a lot of chances on goal, and we need to put them away. Of course, everyone is a little disappointed about breaking our streak, but I think the loss has made us hungry to get after another win."

After beating Yale, Penn is now atop the Ivy League standings, but the Tigers feel that still have a good chance to win the league.

"We will be working on defending set pieces as well as brushing up our attack this week in preparation for Cornell. This loss is unfortunate, but that doesn't mean we're going to stop pushing," Anagnostopoulos said. "Soccer is unpredictable. We still have three more games, and anything can happen. That Ivy title is still up for grabs at this point."