SEASON RECAP: Crimson Weathers Challenging Season, Finishes Sixth

For a young team in any sport, there are two paths to success—one easy and one hard.

Unfortunately for the freshman-laden Harvard women’s soccer team, coach Erica Walsh chose the latter.

In playing four of its first seven matches against ranked opponents, including then-No. 1 Santa Clara, the squad was challenged early and often.

And, in turn, it did not win a single game, going 0-6-1 during a torturous start to the season.

Although this made the team stronger, especially for next year’s push under new coach Ray Leone, the squad never recovered to repair its broken season.

The Crimson finished at 3-13-1 and 2-5-0 in Ivy League play, but this record does not tell the year’s whole story.

The team notched key Ivy wins over rivals Cornell and Penn en route to a respectable league finish.

In the latter match, the consensus high point of the season, Harvard took it to the Quakers in rainy Philadelphia, riding huge saves from Ivy League Rookie of the Year Lauren Mann to notch the victory.

Although the rest of the season did not turn out as well, epitomized by a 5-0 defeat against Princeton two weeks later, the effort showed what the young core of freshmen is capable of in the future.

“We always want to go undefeated in Ivies,” senior captain Laura Odorczyk said. “To start with a win, our first of the season, we played really well and got a win, which really strengthened our team.

“It was a really high-intensity game. We were pretty pumped and thought it set the tone for the rest of the season.”

Despite this effort, the Crimson had trouble all season translating its ability into victories.

In addition to the 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Tigers, Harvard also lost, 5-1, to lowly Rhode Island and even dropped a home match against Holy Cross, losing in overtime, 2-1.

The Crusaders finished the season with a 4-14-2 record.

“To lose that game in overtime was really tough, especially with our past record against them,” Odorczyk said. “We had so many shots on goal and just could not put it away.”

In a season of ups and downs that confounded many, the team ended on a positive note.

In playing Ivy League champions Columbia close in a 1-0 defeat in the last week of the season, the Crimson showed, encouragingly, that it would not quit—no matter what the circumstances.

But for many, the season was about asking what could have been, with so many disappointments and lost opportunities.

Amidst these apparent failures, there many important questions emerge regarding the program’s future.

As it showed in its last match, the young squad played better with time, as freshmen such as Lizzy Nichols and Mann ceased being rookies and became stars.

“With our team, we had very few upperclassmen, so they were forced into the limelight right away, starting games and playing 90 minutes,” Odorczyk said.

“It wasn’t ideal, because they couldn’t learn before they were thrown into the game, [but] they really stepped up to the challenge and that will be so crucial in the future,” she added.

What did not hurt the team made it

stronger.

The freshman core is looking to do big things, and it is not discouraged by 13 losses.

Rather, the rookies weathered the storm and came out the other side ready for success.

“There were a few lows—it was a building season,” Mann said. “We learned a lot. I think we’re prepared for anything in the future. All those lows contributed to making us better.”

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.