CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — No. 13-ranked Harvard University tallied two dominant wins at Blodgett Pool to up the team’s record to 18-1 on the year. The Crimson opened the day by defeating Siena University, 19-5, before matching its season high for single-game goals with a 23-7 victory over the Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
Harvard wasted no time in the first game of the day after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. Lucy Levenberg-Penklis, Beatrice Hearey, Sofia Del Villar and Heidi Heffelfinger all scored in the opening quarter. Another four goals from the Crimson in the second quarter gave Harvard a 10-0 lead by halftime as the Crimson went on to score nine of the next 14 goals in the game.
Del Villar added eight points in the game after a hat-trick and five assists. Del Villar and three other Crimson netted hat-tricks – it marks the first time this season that four different Crimson had hat-tricks.
Lucy Berkman had one goal and three assists, Heffelfinger added a pair of goals and three assists and Hearey recorded five steals in addition to a three point morning.
Sofia Wang scored once, Maya O’Dea netted a hat-trick and added two assists, Petra Klemm posted a four point game after two goals and two assists, while Emma Gilbert and Levenberg-Penklis both netted hat-tricks.
Orli Cooper made seven saves before Sutchie Ofori-Nyako made one save late in the game.
The Crimson again started fast versus VMI with a goal from Heffelfinger in the first thirty seconds. Harvard rattled off six more unanswered goals to explode to a 7-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Hearey contributed three of the first quarter goals to tally an early hat-trick.
Harvard doubled its goal total in the second and did not give up a goal until the 2:20 mark in the frame to build a 14-2 lead by halftime.
The Crimson outscored VMI by a 9-5 count in the second half as it ran away with the game. Hearey finished the contest with four goals, three assists and a steal. Heffelfinger and Levenberg-Penklis also added hat-tricks in the Crimson’s romp.
Wang and O’Dea each tallied three steals against VMI, while Ella Schneider recorded two goals and dished out a team-high four assists.
A total of eight Harvard players recorded two or more goals to support goalkeepers Cooper and Ofori-Nyako who notched two and three saves, respectively.
Information courtesy Harvard University Athletics Communications
