Baskind Has Career Day in Win Over Tigers

After the Harvard women’s soccer team lost two of its first four Ivy League matches, the team’s chances for a third-straight league crown looked bleak. The squad’s 2-1 overtime loss to non-league opponent Siena on Oct. 19 seemed to indicate that the Crimson was headed in the wrong direction.

That’s when Melanie Baskind took things into her own hands.

The junior had the best game of her collegiate career Saturday at Princeton, scoring two goals and adding two assists in Harvard’s 4-0 thrashing of the Tigers. Her six points were a career high.

“She was in the zone,” Crimson coach Ray Leone said. “She was just seeing the ball, she was making great runs, [and] she was receiving it with good vision and composure. It was a fantastic performance.”

Prior to the Princeton contest, Baskind had been in a slump, failing to tally a point in the previous four matches.

The Quincy House resident turned that drought into merely a memory less than 20 minutes into the match. After fighting her way through the Tigers’ defense, Baskind beat the goalie in a one-on-one faceoff.

“She just committed to score,” co-captain Katherine Sheeleigh said of the goal. “I guess what was so special about her play was she didn’t let up.”

With the visitors only leading by one goal midway through the match though, Baskind took her play to an even higher level the next half.

About 16 minutes into the second period, Sheeleigh knocked in a blocked Baskind shot that had slipped away from Princeton’s goalie.

Within the next six minutes, Baskind added another goal of her own, and sophomore Alexandra Conigliaro scored Harvard’s fourth goal of the game after corralling another deflected Baskind shot and firing the ball into the back of the net.

The Tigers just couldn’t handle the Baskind blitzkrieg.

In total, the junior took six shots. All six were on goal, and four directly led to Crimson scores.

“Mel was unbelievable on Saturday,” Sheeleigh said. “She couldn’t have been any more dynamic, [and] she made stuff happen for us. She was basically awesome.”

“[Baskind] was responding to our team not doing that well on Tuesday [against Siena], and [she] just [said], ‘This is it,’” Leone added. “And we played with that kind of [attitude], and Mel led the way on that.”

For her efforts, she earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors for the second time this season.

It seems that the only person who wasn’t impressed by Baskind’s performance was the standout herself.

“There’s one person that gets the stats at the end of the game…[but] it’s someone else who’s making runs to make movement or following up shots,” Baskind said. “It really was just a reflection of how everyone played, being able to put in four goals [Saturday] night.”

The Framingham, Mass. native continued her high level of play against Quinnipiac on Monday night. Though she failed to find the back of the net, her four shots on goal were twice the amount of anyone else on the team.

Baskind has long been a force on the offensive front. With her two goals against Princeton, she ran her year total to seven, tying her for the team lead with Sheeleigh.

“She has awesome foot skills, and she works hard every single game,” Sheeleigh said. “She just makes things happen defensively [and] offensively.”

While Baskind is a powerhouse on the field, she exerts a strong presence off of it as well.

“Everybody loves her,” Leone said. “She’s just got an ability to connect with every single player on the team.”

The squad has two matches with Ancient Eight opponents remaining, including a bout at Dartmouth this Saturday. If the team wants to capture the league title once more, the contest against the Big Green is a must-win.

“All that really matters is that we beat Dartmouth on Saturday,” senior co-captain Gina Wideroff said.

As the team looks ahead, it can certainly build off of its performance Saturday against Princeton.

“It was a good night for me, [and] it was a good night for the team,” Baskind said. “It’s time to take that positive energy into what’s next.”