Pirates Falter Defensively in 3-0 Loss to Harvard

Date: September 17, 2017

By Andrea Keppler

The Seton Hall women's soccer team fell to the Harvard Crimson on Sunday afternoon by a final score of 3-0.

The Pirates were looking to get their first win of the season in their final non-conference game, but struggled to find the net throughout the 90 minutes of play and didn't capitalize on opportunities to do so.

Seton Hall's Lauren Hall recorded the first shot on goal of the game, but the Crimson jumped on the board first with a goal by Linda Liedel assisted by Murphy Agnew in the 33rd minute.

Less than four minutes later, Harvard's Leah Mohammadi was able to connect on a corner kick that went directly into the back of the net to give Harvard a 2-0 advantage.

A header by Julia Stirpe in the 39th minute tried to pick up the Pirates' offense, but she couldn't convert it into a goal for The Hall.

Taylor Cutcliff brought life to the Pirates' defense in the final minutes of the first half as she saved what could have possibly given Harvard a 3-0 lead at the time.

In the second half, the Crimson continued their offensive dominance as they outshot The Hall 3-1 in the first eight minutes of this half.

The Pirates were awarded a free kick 18 yards out in the 56th minute but were unable to find the net as Harvard's Kat Kress stopped Seton Hall from scoring their first goal.

The Crimson would put the game on ice in the 60th minute as Zayne Matulis fired one into the back of the net off a long free kick entry from Mohammadi.

Seton Hall had other missed opportunities in the final stretch of the game with shots by Sophia Duffy, Ryann Ramirez, Ana Zadro and Tanika Roach not being able to find the back of the net.

Yellow cards were also issued to the Cutcliff and Duffy in the 79th and 86th minutes, respectively.

"In regards to their offense we knew they were going to be dynamic," Head Coach Rick Stainton said. "They're quite dynamic and athletic which kind of caught us unbalanced at times and they were able to capitalize on those moments."

We scouted them well, we knew what their weapons were," Stainton said about Harvard's attack. "We had some unfortunate circumstances [ourselves] so we were a little short-manned or staffed."

Sunday's game against Harvard concluded the Pirates' non-conference schedule and next weekend marks the commencement of Big East play.

Stainton said the non-conference schedule was a platform for the team where they were able to see growth from individuals and from the team as a whole.

The Pirates' next matchup is at DePaul on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 1 p.m.

 

Andrea Keppler can be reached at andrea.keppler@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports