Harvard Women’s Soccer Shuts Out Yale in 3-0 Victory, Holds Bulldogs to One Shot on Target

After Dartmouth snapped RV Harvard women’s soccer’s seven-game win streak last Saturday, the Crimson’s head coach Chris Hamblin reaffirmed the team could “still control our destiny.”

Yesterday, Hamblin’s team wasted no time proving that he was right, as a dominant offensive performance helped Harvard (9-3-1, 3-1 Ivy League) prevail in a 3-0 shutout victory over its rival Yale (5-8, 0-4) at Jordan Field.

Forwards freshman Brooke Huleatt and captain Ólöf Kristinsdóttir, who between them have scored in all but two matches, returned to the scoresheet to open and close the scoring on Saturday. The duo currently lead Harvard with 10 goals apiece, tied for the most by a single player for Harvard in a season since Josefine Hasbo ’25 in 2023.

In between, senior defender Jasmine Leshnick, the team’s leading goalscorer in 2025, tallied her fifth of the season just ten minutes before halftime.

The team’s 36 goals this year are now the third-highest that the program has tallied in the last decade, trailing even the 2023 Ivy League Championship Tournament-winning season.

“We’ve had some really good moments over the last few months. We’ve also had moments where we needed to be better in the last few months too, but we’ve been able to grind out the results,” Hamblin said. “Sometimes when you win, it doesn’t show up as much, and, obviously, when you lose a game.”

“We actually played pretty well against Dartmouth; we just didn’t finish our chances, and so we’ve been playing well consistently throughout this stretch,” the coach added. “We were just able to convert today, and so I don’t think there was anything too different. It was just that we had a little bit more focus and a few other details.”

Defensively, Harvard held Yale to a single shot on target, which came in the final two minutes — matching its one shot allowed against Northeastern in September.

Goalkeepers freshman Olivia Busby and sophomore Nicole Bidun faced minimal tests on net thanks to their defense, with Bidun recording one save. At the other end, the Bulldogs’ senior goalie Kyla Holmes — who started all but one match last year — posted nine saves in her first start of the season after injury.

With three games left in Ivy play, Harvard sits atop the standings with nine points alongside Dartmouth and Columbia. Dartmouth defeated Harvard 1-0 last week, but fell to Columbia 2-0 in its previous match. The Crimson and the Lions will face off in the final match of conference play on Nov. 7 in Cambridge.

Harvard applied the offensive pressure early, creating three strong scoring opportunities — whipping two shots from the wing and a free kick attempt scooped up by Holmes in net.

By the time the Crimson scored its first goal ten minutes in, Yale had not recorded a shot, compared to the home team’s five shots with two on target. All three of Harvard’s goalscorers in the match combined for the opening goal.

After the Crimson’s pressure forced a Yale defender to clear the ball, Kristinsdóttir launched a deep throw-in which sailed toward the box. Leshnick redirected the ball with a one-touch tap to Huleatt, who was wide open at the back post and easily slotted the ball home for a 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs had their first chance of the game roughly five minutes later through a counterattack that otherwise disrupted Harvard’s offensive flow. From a lofted ball near midfield, Yale freshman forward Hope McMillin slipped past the Crimson’s center back and cut inside for an attempted chip over Busby, but the ball ricocheted off the right post.

Harvard continued to comfortably cycle possession in its offensive half. A quick breakthrough from the middle created the opportunity for Leshnick on a through-ball for a one-on-one rush, though her ensuing shot fell just wide.

The senior ultimately converted with 10 minutes remaining in the half. After building through the midfield, Huleatt located captain Anna Rayhill running into space on the right wing.

A Yale defender attempted to clear Rayhill’s slow-driven ball to the back post, but the ball fell directly to Leshnick, who powerfully converted to the top right post.

As the Crimson rotated additional offensive pieces from its bench near halftime — including sophomore Kennedy Belfon, junior Lauren Muniz, and freshman Molly Vana — its pressure largely prevented Yale from appearing in its own offensive half.

“In any game where you have had a lot of the ball and a lot of the chances, that next goal is so important,” Hamblin said. “If Yale were to get it, it’s 2-1, their energy rises, and they go. If it goes 3-0, it becomes harder for them to get back into the game.”

“My message was just that we’ve got to not get comfortable, stay with our game plan, and be hungry, just like we were in the first half,” he added. “We did that, and we created some chances, and we’re unfortunate not to come away with more, but a 3-0 victory is still something that we’re very proud of.”

The Bulldogs’ attempts to break through Harvard’s backline were consistently snuffed by interceptions and clearances, a strength demonstrated by Hamblin’s rotations through the match.

Freshman defender Claire Kessenger notably returned to the lineup for her first minutes since exiting a match against the University of Massachusetts in August with an injury.

Sophomore defender Phoebe Chadwick — who earned her first career start against Dartmouth last week — also played crucial minutes anchoring the Crimson’s firm backline alongside sophomore Danicka Miller and seniors Susie Long and Amy König, all of whom rank among the team’s top 11 players in minutes played this season.

“Having Claire back in the rotation is a huge plus,” Hamblin said. “She’s been out and working diligently, so it’s great to see her hard work pay off. I also think it’s great that we’ve got a bunch of different options that we can play in that back line. We can put people in different scenarios and still keep a shutout.”

Yale secured its first corner of the game to start the second half, gradually building possession down the left wing and finding space through the midfield. Harvard, though, won consistent tackles in the midfield, enabling Leshnick and Kristinsdóttir to connect sequences in their final third.

The efforts were rewarded 20 minutes into the second half. Captain midfielder Írena Héðinsdóttir Gonzalez won a tackle and guided the ball toward her Icelandic counterpart. Kristinsdótir weaved past two defenders at the top of the box, then cut a left-footed shot across her body and into the bottom right corner of the net to extend the lead to 3-0.

While the Bulldogs soon maintained a stretch of offensive combinations, they struggled to advance inward from the wings, as balls swept infield were met quickly by the Crimson’s backline.

Yale’s strongest chance of the half came from a yellow card and foul called against Héðinsdóttir Gonzalez just outside Harvard’s own box, though the resulting free kick sailed over the crossbar.

The Crimson, for its part, didn’t relent. Vana’s trio of chances — working down the left wing from a through ball and pressing the Bulldogs backline — forced Holmes to make three consecutive saves to end the game.

Harvard will travel down the I-95 to face Brown (8-3-2, 2-1-1) in Providence, R.I. on Saturday at 6 p.m. EDT, followed by an away match against Penn before returning home to host Columbia for its final conference contest.

The Bears previously led the Ivy League standings until Dartmouth mounted a two-goal comeback to secure a 2-1 win on Saturday, altering the league’s rankings.

The conference’s top four teams in the regular season will qualify for the Ivy League Tournament, while the first-place team will earn the privilege to host the competition.

“Every Ivy League game is a challenging game. There are no easy games, and what we want to try and achieve is our best performance week in, week out, and hope that the outcomes fall your way,” Hamblin said after the match. “Today we had a very, very good performance. We’ve got to get our game plan right and our preparation right for Brown because that’s going to be a whole different game altogether.”

“Brown’s a very good team, and they’re gonna certainly give us some new tests,” he added. “I’m just really, really proud of the way the team bounced back after a tough loss last week — I’m very, very excited about the next games ahead.”

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.