The growing pains found their way back.
The young Massachusetts women’s soccer team put up little resistance Friday afternoon at Rudd Field, as Harvard came in and dominated the Minutewomen, 2-0.
The Crimson were on the attack constantly throughout the game, applying immense pressure on the UMass (2-2-0) defense and goalie Stephanie Gordon.
Harvard (1-0-0) finally broke through with a pair of goals in the second half on a pair of set pieces, much to the dismay of Minutewomen coach Ed Matz.
“We gave up a goal on a restart,” Matz said, “on a corner kick, and it’s getting habitual for us giving up goals on corners. Until we stop doing that we are going to find it difficult to win games this year.”
Haley Washburn scored the first goal 50 minutes, seven seconds into the game on a header off of a corner kick. Peyton Johnson, who took the corner, was credited with the assist. Johnson also scored the second goal of the game off of a free kick, capitalizing on a UMass penalty.
In total, Harvard took 19 shots, 11 on goal, compared to 8 by the Minutewomen, five of which were on target. It forced Gordon to constantly be on her toes, and she came up with nine saves in the losing effort.
Matz saw a tale of two halves in the game, with his team struggling to put in the necessary effort, especially in the first half.
“I thought we spent most of the first half allowing Harvard to win balls,” Matz said. “The difference in the first half was every time we took a goal kick or a punt, Harvard won those balls and if they didn’t win those balls they won the second balls and they put the ball back into our end and I thought that was the big difference.”
Even though UMass conceded the two goals in the second half, Matz saw an improved performance from his team, especially on the offensive end.
“I though we came out in the second half and we played better and I thought we had some good chances,” Matz said. “I thought the Harvard keeper came up on a couple good saves when it was 0-0.
Stepping up in the second half was forward Moa Mattsson and midfielder Hlin Gunnlaugsdottir, who had three and two shots on goal respectively, for the Minutewomen offense.
But anytime UMass had an opportunity to score, Crimson goalkeeper Bathany Kanten was there to close the door on it. She came up with five saves, four of which came against a much-improved Minutewomen offense in the second half.
Overall, UMass committed four more fouls than Harvard and also conceded six more corner kicks, giving an already talented Crimson team plenty of opportunities, which they wouldn’t refuse.
Two Minutewomen, Rebekka Sverrisdottir and Lauren Skesavage, were also handed yellow cards.
Up next for UMass is a trio of road games against ranked opponents, beginning with No. 7 Wake Forest this Friday followed by dates with No. 16 Virginia Tech and No. 19 Boston University.
Cameron McDonough can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_McDonough.
