Trostisar Today

Last Friday, Brown (10-6, 4-3 Ivy) traveled up to Cambridge to face off against Harvard (17-0, 7-0) for the semifinals of the Ivy League Field Hockey Tournament. In the matchup of two nationally ranked teams, the No. 3 Crimson overpowered No. 19 Bruno 2-0, sending the Bears back to Providence and catapulting themselves to the tournament final. Despite the Bears trailing the Crimson by just 2 shots and trouncing Harvard 7-4 on penalty corners, Harvard’s 2 goals in the first two quarters proved too much for Bruno to handle. Sophia Clark ’29, a field hockey forward, described Harvard as a “very consistent and clinical team” in an email to The Herald. “They mark very tightly, and so in order to get the ball, you really have to get timing and physicality correct.”The start of the game saw neither team taking the offensive, with a total of 8 substitutions but no shots taken during the first few minutes of the game. But this stalemate was quickly broken as the teams wrestled with the ball on Harvard’s side of the field. As soon as she gained control of the ball, Lexi Pellegrino ’26 was surrounded by several of Harvard’s players. In a desperate attempt to capitalize on Brown’s position, she launched the first shot of the game. Unfortunately for Bruno, the Crimson’s Linde Burger dove to the right and knocked the ball off its course and out of the goal. With no additional shots taken and the score still stuck at 0-0, it seemed as if the first quarter would end peacefully. But with just 40 seconds to go, Harvard’s Martha le Huray made her move. Dashing toward Brown’s goal from the left, she was intercepted by Kate Siedem ’27, but Harvard didn’t give in. Spotting her teammate Sage Piekarski standing directly in front of Brown’s goal, le Huray passed her the ball. Even with Brown’s defense clustered around her, Piekarski lofted the ball neatly into the goal, scoring the first point of the game.”When given the chance, they will capitalize, and that is exactly what they did for both goals,” Clark wrote. The Crimson carried their momentum into the second quarter, immediately taking the offensive. Within 90 seconds of the start of the quarter, Piekarski once again found herself with the ball. Approaching Brown’s goal from the right, she swiftly passed it to le Huray. The Bears charged at le Huray, but she had enough time to line up her shot and send the ball flying at the net. Luckily for Brown, goalkeeper Ellie Parker ’29 rushed from her goaltending spot to intercept the shot, preventing Harvard from gaining a 2-goal lead. Just 12 seconds later, Harvard’s Lara Beekhuis took her shot at the goal but it streaked too far to the right. But she was undeterred and redeemed herself just 3 minutes later. Although her teammate Fiene Oerlemans feinted and slipped past two Bears, Harvard found itself unable to break through Brown’s defense. Resetting the ball to the middle of the field, the Crimson instead sought to reach the Brown goal from the left. Firing the ball into the circle, it was picked up by Beekhuis, who slammed the ball into the goal, giving the Crimson a 2-0 lead. Thankfully, Brown managed to evade a third goal when just 3 minutes until the match’s halfway point Oerlemans bounced the ball to Beekhuis, who was situated in the center of Brown’s circle. Beekhuis, hoping to score her second goal of the game, narrowly missed the net as the ball veered to the right. The final two quarters saw no successful goals, despite the several shots both sides attempted to convert. Sensing defeat just 15 minutes away during the fourth and final quarter, Bruno increased their offensive efforts, doubling their shots from the previous quarter to 6. Halfway into the quarter, Emily Jury ’29 rushed toward the Harvard goal, passing it straight to Clark’s stick. Clark slammed the ball towards the goal, but Burger’s right leg kicked the ball off course, blocking the Bears from landing their first goal of the game. But Clark remained positive about the game after the match.”I think the team played really well overall,” she wrote. “Everyone worked at 100%, and I am so proud and grateful to be part of a team that will give everything.”With time quickly running out and just over 2 minutes until the end of the game, Bruno saw a glimmer of hope with a penalty corner. Pellegrino, who had previously already taken 2 shots in the quarter, was passed the ball and squared up for her third and what would be Brown’s final shot of the game. But her shot went straight toward Burger, who sent the ball flying elsewhere as she fell to one knee. With all 6 attempts missing the back of the net, the score remained 2-0, and Harvard moved into the final of the Ivy tournament. There, they defeated No. 5 Princeton (15-3, 6-1) 2-1 to claim the tournament title. Looking ahead, Clark wrote that despite the loss, “there are so many positives we can take away from the game and, of course, areas to improve, which I am sure we will work on in the year.”.