Down to 10 Players for Most of the Second Half, Harvard Women's Soccer Led Penn Three Times and Settled for 3-3. Now It Must Beat Columbia to Make the Ivy Tournament

Harvard women's soccer scored less than three minutes into its Halloween night match against Penn, took the lead three separate times, and played most of the second half a player down. It still left with only a 3-3 draw, The Harvard Crimson reported, and that result leaves the Crimson needing a win in its final Ivy League game to reach the conference tournament.

Harvard is now 9-4-2 overall and 3-2-1 in the Ivy League. Penn is 6-5-3 and 1-2-3, according to the Crimson.

<h3>A fast start</h3>

The opening goal came out of a Penn free kick. Freshman midfielder Lou Ruffien won the ball and found captain Ólöf Kristinsdóttir, who needed two touches to turn and play it forward to freshman forward Brooke Huleatt. Huleatt carried it the length of the left wing from midfield, cut inside and slotted it into the left corner. The Crimson needed six touches among three players, and it was the team's second-earliest goal of the season, the paper reported.

That fits a pattern. Twelve of Harvard's goals this season have come in the first 20 minutes, and more than half have come before halftime, according to the Crimson.

<h3>Penn answers, Harvard answers back</h3>

Penn tied it about 10 minutes later. As Harvard tried to build out of its defensive third, Penn senior midfielder Magali Capdevila stepped in front of a backward pass. She fed senior forward Abbey Cook, who drove about a third of the field and fired a bouncing ball toward the back post. Harvard freshman goalkeeper Olivia Busby got a hand to it, but the rebound spilled to Capdevila for the equalizer.

Harvard went back ahead about 30 minutes into the half. Off a goal kick, Huleatt dropped back and played a long ball across the field to Rayhill on the right wing. Rayhill beat two defenders, her shot was blocked, and the ball bounced back to senior defender Jasmine Leshnick, who hit it into the bottom right corner. Harvard led 2-1 at the break.

Busby and sophomore Nicole Bidun split the halves in goal, as the pair has done for most of the season after the first two matches, the Crimson reported. In midfield, Leshnick and sophomore Elsa Santos López repeatedly broke up Penn breakaways.

<h3>The red card</h3>

On the first possession of the second half, freshman defender Claire Kessenger was shown a red card, leaving Harvard with 10 players. Coach Hamblin challenged the call on video. 'My challenge was that she didn't dive into the player intentionally. There was a trip. There was contact. She had clear positioning on the ball. She wasn't behind the attacker,' he said, according to the Crimson. 'Players at this level don't just trip with no contact. That's not how this works.' He said the referee 'didn't have the angle on the video replay to make a different decision.'

On the free kick that followed, a low shot deflected off the wall and fell to Penn sophomore defender Casey Forman, who tied it 2-2.

<h3>A goal off the knees</h3>

Harvard went ahead a third time in an unusual way. After a Kristinsdóttir through ball ran past Huleatt, a Penn defender tried to clear and instead hit the ball straight into Rayhill, who had pushed forward. It came off the Harvard captain's knees and went into the net, the Crimson reported. Senior defender Amy König had taken a yellow card earlier in the sequence of play for stopping a counterattack.

Penn's third equalizer came off a ball whipped into the box from Harvard's defensive right side. Harvard's clearance fell to Cook, who tapped it to Capdevila for a one-touch finish, her second goal of the night.

In the last 10 minutes, Harvard had most of the possession and chances, including a Leshnick shot from just outside the box. 'Not only did we score, we also hit the post, we hit the crossbar, we earned a number of corners, so we didn't just sit in and defend,' Hamblin said. 'When you're down a player, you just ask everyone to go all in, and that's what we did.'

<h3>The Ivy picture</h3>

Brown clinched one of the four Ivy League Tournament spots with its Saturday win, and Penn, Yale and Cornell are eliminated, the Crimson reported. Harvard sits fourth, tied with Princeton at 10 points. Brown and Columbia lead with 13 each, and Dartmouth has 12.

Harvard needs to beat Columbia to clinch a bid. In one scenario five teams finish tied at 13 points, but tiebreakers mean Harvard can be seeded no higher than second, so Brown, Dartmouth or Columbia will host. If Harvard ties Columbia, it needs Brown to at least draw Princeton, which Harvard holds the head-to-head edge over. If Columbia loses, Harvard needs Brown to win, according to the paper.

'There's way too much up in the air right now. For us, it's all about beating Columbia and doing what we can there,' Hamblin said. 'We obviously wanted to host. It looks like that's unlikely now, so we need to keep pushing.'

<h3>What's next</h3>

Harvard hosts Columbia on Senior Day at Jordan Field on Saturday at 6 p.m., with all four final Ivy matches kicking off at the same time. Columbia lost its Ivy opener 4-0 to Brown, then won four straight before tying Princeton on Saturday, the Crimson reported. 'They're a very good team and sitting top of the table right now, so we've got to beat them to continue our season,' Hamblin said.