CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. But as the early 90’s pop divas Wilson Phillips said, we would all like to just “hold on for one more day.” However, you can’t have it both ways as the Massachusetts women’s soccer team discovered yesterday afternoon, falling 2-0 at Harvard’s Ohiri Field, ending its three-match winning streak.
The Crimson (4-1) tallied a goal on either side of halftime en route to their fourth consecutive victory. Orly Ripmaster opened the scoring with a 27th minute strike off a free kick and Caitlin Costello clinched it in the 72nd minute with her team-leading fifth goal of the season. But the real star of the show was the Crimson defense. The back four limited the number of quality chances for the Minutewomen (4-2, 1-0 Atlantic 10) and when UMass did find a way through, goalkeeper Cheryl Gunther was there to make the save.
“This is a team you don’t want to get down to,” said UMass head coach Jim Rudy of the Crimson. “You don’t want to get down because they’re so big that you might not be able to get back.”
Getting down is exactly what the Minutewomen did as junior midfielder Martha Conover was whistled for a foul 25 yards from goal. Two Harvard players, sophomore Katie Westfall and Ripmaster stood over the ball as UMass goalie Julie Podhrasky organized her wall. Eventually it was Ripmaster, a junior from Boulder, Colo., who struck a swerving ball over the UMass wall and just inside Podhrasky’s right post. It was 1-0 to the Crimson, much to the dismay of Coach Rudy.
“[The foul] was a little petty and I was surprised because that official doesn’t usually blow a lot,” he said. “I thought Martha went in well, blocked it, won it and their kid went down. I thought it was a good tackle, but you can’t question the quality of the free kick. She really ripped it.”
Both keepers were tested often throughout the first half but were equal to the challenge. Gunther was forced to make a pair of saves at the feet of sophomore Erin Lilly, one off a Conover drive as well as watching a Stephanie Santos blast fly just over the crossbar. At the other end of the pitch, Podhrasky made five quality saves en route to nine overall, to keep the scoreline at 1-0 as the teams headed into halftime.
The Minutewomen came out in the second 45 looking to dictate the pace of play and take the match at the Crimson. This strategy nearly paid off just five minutes into the half as Lilly was on the receiving end of a cheeky one-two just outside the box and was through on goal. However, she took one touch too many and had the ball knocked away for a corner by a sliding Harvard defender.
“I think if she hit it first time she had a great chance to score,” Rudy said. “But she took a little extra touch and the defender came in and cleared it out.”
This would be one of the few times that the Minutewomen would get in behind the Crimson defense in the second half as it tried to protect the one goal lead. Harvard kept putting numbers back behind the ball, getting forward only on the counterattack, a tactic that paid off in the 72nd minute.
The Crimson picked the ball up at midfield and quickly attacked the UMass back line. Costello was able to turn past UMass captain Sarah Cook and get into the box before hitting a square ball to senior Colleen Moore. Moore took a pair of shots, both of which were blocked down by the UMass defense. But the defense could not clear the ball before it squirted loose to Costello who fired a low right-footed shot under Podhrasky and into the UMass net to make the score 2-0.
“[Clearing the ball] is one of our weaknesses,” Rudy said. “We work on it, but it’s been a sort of Achilles heel for us. But it’s something we’re going to keep working on until we get it right.”
This second goal forced the Minutewomen to go to three upfront as opposed to their traditional two, in a last ditch attempt at creating some quality chances. Senior midfielder Brooke Bartlett was pushed onto the forward line, but she and the rest of the UMass attack struggled to find a hole in the Harvard defense. The only shots that the Minutewomen could muster in the final 15 minutes came from well outside the 18-yard box and did little to challenge Gunther, who finished the match with seven saves.
Bartlett came into the match carrying an ankle injury and showed her bravery and toughness to play all 90 minutes but was clearly not 100 percent. But Bartlett was not the only injured UMass party, as freshman Erica Wideberg played only sparingly with back spasms and Lilly and Michelle Luttati both picked up knocks during the run of play. The limited role of these players further limited the quality chances that the Minutewomen created.
The wounded Minutewomen return to action on Friday afternoon when the head down to Bronx, N.Y. to take on Fordham in a key A-10 matchup.
