{"id":176852,"date":"2025-09-29T04:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/176852\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T04:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:06:08","slug":"womens-soccer-falls-2-0-to-harvard-university-in-competitive-midday-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/176852\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s soccer falls 2\u20130 to Harvard University in competitive midday matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a clear Saturday afternoon, Princeton women\u2019s soccer (2\u20134\u20133 overall, 1\u20131\u20130 Ivy League) faced Harvard University (3\u20134\u20132, 1\u20131\u20130) away in Cambridge, coming off their 1\u20130 win<\/a> away at the University of Pennsylvania (4\u20132\u20133, 0\u20131\u20131) last week. The weekend game ended in a 2\u20130 Crimson victory.<\/p>\n

Princeton began the game with possession and energy, taking two early shots, both flying just above the crossbar. Between the two shots, junior goalkeeper Cecilia Cerone saw her first save of the match during Harvard\u2019s first connected offensive run.<\/p>\n

After 15 minutes of competitive play, Harvard forward \u00d3l\u00f6f Kristinsd\u00f3ttir completed the first goal of the day with an assist from Harvard midfielder Elsa Santos L\u00f3pez. The play was the result of a quick run up the left field, a cross to the center, and a battle in the box for Tiger junior midfielder Kayla Wong and Harvard\u2019s Santos L\u00f3pez.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harvard won the contest and directed the ball further toward the goal. Kristinsd\u00f3ttir met the ball and found the open space in the net to finish the run and put the Crimson on the board.<\/p>\n

Princeton\u2019s defense shut down the majority of Harvard\u2019s forward runs, however. Notably, Harvard\u2019s six total shots in the Saturday match was a season low, a downturn from the 13 shots in their prior game against Dartmouth. Of the Crimson\u2019s two shots in the first half, both occurred within the first 16 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harvard\u2019s aggressive offense, typically averaging seven corner kicks per game, only saw three this matchup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [Harvard] came out with a game plan that really put pressure on our back line. I think that we did a pretty good job of feeling that,\u201d senior forward Drew Coomans told The Daily Princetonian. \u201cI think our problems came when putting pressure on their back line.\u201d<\/p>\n

As cited by Coomans, the difficulty for the Tigers this weekend manifested itself primarily in converting offensive possession into shots on goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the challenge all year for us,\u201d women\u2019s soccer Head Coach Sean Driscoll explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not for a lack of trying, certainly not for a lack of getting into those spaces. Sometimes it just comes down to a simple lack of execution in that moment, but the only way that changes is if we continue to work on it and create even better habits.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Halftime marked a distinctive shift in Princeton\u2019s approach. The team exhibited a renewed sense of urgency, capitalizing on more opportunities for offensive efforts, doubling their number of shots from the first half, and forcing two corner kicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite several good setups from Princeton, including the work of senior midfielder Pia Beaulieu and first-year midfielder Maddie Recupero, less than five minutes into the second half, the Tigers\u2019 struggled to score.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a little over 30 minutes left on the clock, Harvard saw their second goal of the match. A penalty kick was called on a handball from first-year defender Julia Johnson inside Princeton\u2019s 18-yard box. The shot, taken by Kristinsd\u00f3ttir, lodged cleanly into the top right back of the net as Cerone dove the opposite way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe\"
\n Get the best of the \u2018Prince\u2019 delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

In response, the Tigers maintained their energy. Coomans pushed the Tigers up the field on several occasions, including one at the 72 minute mark, giving Princeton a corner. Yet, the Tigers weren\u2019t able to score.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments during the game where we did show what we\u2019re capable of, but it\u2019s going to be about turning those moments into a full 90-minute game,\u201d Cerone told the \u2018Prince.\u2019<\/p>\n

Harvard, up 2\u20130, fended off Princeton\u2019s remaining attacks and ended the game on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into next week we just have to try to hit the reset button and get focus for playing at home,\u201d Driscoll told the \u2018Prince.\u2019 \u201cWe play well in that environment, on that surface, in that stadium, and so I\u2019m looking forward to getting back out there again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, the Tigers will take on Yale University (2\u20137\u20130, 0\u20132\u20130) on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 4, in hopes of regaining their momentum and clinching a second conference win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long season,\u201d said Cerone. \u201cWe still have a chance to regroup, fix what we need to fix, and get back into the position that we want to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Siena Sydenham is a Sports contributor for the \u2018Prince.\u2019<\/p>\n

Please direct any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a clear Saturday afternoon, Princeton women\u2019s soccer (2\u20134\u20133 overall, 1\u20131\u20130 Ivy League) faced Harvard University (3\u20134\u20132, 1\u20131\u20130)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-176852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}