Women's soccer edged out by Harvard in tight match after conceding early goal

The Princeton Women’s soccer team (9-4-1, 1-3-1 Ivy) faced a tough loss against Harvard (8-3-3, 3-0-2 Ivy) this past weekend at Homecoming in Roberts Stadium. While the weather was cold and rainy, the Tigers stayed strong throughout the entire match. Senior forward and team captain Tyler Lussi commented, “The game was pretty well attended despite the raining, blowing weather. Garfield and his team always have the field in perfect condition and although it was wet, it was wet and slippery for both teams.”

With an early goal right off the bat, Saturday’s win extendedHarvard’s winning streak to nine games. Only three minutes into the game, Crimson senior Karly Zlatic put Harvard on the board. Miscommunication by the Tigers led to a failed attempt to bounce the ball back to goal, which resulted in a header for Zlatic from 12 yards, where she was able to put the ball across the goal line. Orange and Black was unable to make a turnaround, especially given that fact that the Crimson’s defense has had an extremely successful season, tallying their sixth shutout of the year.

However, despite the homecoming weekend lost, the team is still in good spirits. Lussi remarked, “Although this may sound strange, I believe it was our best loss this year. We only had one miscommunication against a team that has the capacity to and did punish us for each mistake.” The Tigers also managed to out-shoot the Crimson in the second period, 7-1. Princeton has won the shot total in its last five games, but has only been victorious in two of them.

Coming up on Tuesday, the team will return to Roberts Stadium to battle against Bucknell University (13-1-1, 7-1-0 Patriot League). To improve from Saturday, Lussi noted, “After speaking to the forwards and midfielders, I'm going to ask Garfield to take the clear plexiglass shield he has over the front of the goal off so some of our shots will go inon Tuesdaynight. Sometimes the ball does not want to find the back of the net so you have to keeping shooting until it does. The 7 p.m. game will be the team’s final non-conference match of the season.