Photo courtesy Gil Talbot
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The Harvard field hockey
team will take the Columbus Day weekend off from Ivy League play
for a cross-country trip to take on No. 17 Stanford and California.
The Crimson meets the Cardinal Friday at 5 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m.
Eastern) and the Golden Bears Sunday at 1 p.m. (4 p.m.
Eastern).
Follow From Home
Live stats for the games will be provided via the Stanford
and Cal
official websites. Fans can also check back on GoCrimson.com
for coverage throughout the weekend.
Last Weekend
The Crimson (3-7) suffered a 3-2, double-overtime loss Saturday at
Brown despite rallying from two goals down in the second half. Katelin Wahl and
Chloe Keating
scored for Harvard, while Cynthia
Tassopoulos made six saves. A day later, Harvard fell to
visiting Bucknell, 3-0, at Jordan Field. Tassopoulos recorded five
saves, but the Bison scored twice in the first half and once in the
second.
Crimson Capsule
Cynthia Tassopoulos owns the second-lowest goals-against average
among Ivy League goalkeepers at 1.87 and the third-highest save
percentage at .747. She ranks fourth among Ivy goalies with 5.90
saves per game.
Chloe Keating leads Harvard with five goals and 14 points and is
tied for 10th in scoring among Ivy Leaguers. She is tied with Carly Dickson
for the team assists lead at four, whose team-high 32 shots are
tied for fifth in the Ancient Eight. Dickson ranks second on the
squad with eight points, and Emma Keller ranks
second with three goals.
History Lesson
This will be Harvard's first trip to the West Coast. The Crimson
previously defeated Stanford, 1-0, in a 1998 neutral-site game at
Boston College and posted home wins against Cal in 1995, 2000 and
2002. Harvard held the Golden Bears to two total goals in those
three games.
Scouting the Cardinal
Stanford owns a 4-2 win against then-eighth-ranked Wake Forest,
and two of its losses have come at the hands of top-10 opponents
North Carolina and Michigan State. The other defeat came to rival
Cal, 2-1, Sept. 26, but the Cardinal bounced back in its next
NorPac game, a 2-1 overtime win Saturday at UC Davis. Stephanie
Byrne netted the overtime winner against the Aggies and leads a
balanced Stanford offense with five goals and 11 points. Jaimee
Erickson paces the squad with three assists. Alessandra Moss
has started nine games in goal and has a .727 save percentage and
1.44 goals-against average.
Scouting the Golden Bears
Stanford has the national ranking, but it is Cal (5-5) that owns a
head-to-head win against the Cardinal and sits in first place in
the NorPac West standings at 4-0 in conference play. The Bears'
last win also came in overtime at UC Davis, but they have since
been swept on a road trip to highly ranked Wake Forest and North
Carolina. Claire Dougherty is Cal's most potent scoring
threat, with seven goals on just 14 shots this season. She also has
a team-best 15 points, while Deanna Kennedy leads the team with
eight assists. Maddie Hand has started every game in goal, posting
a .667 save percentage and 2.44 goals-against average.
