Laxwomen Rush Past Yale

The Harvard women's lacrosse team continued on its unbeaten streak yesterday, demolishing a numbed Yale team, 10-3, in a one-sided effort that left only two teams standing between the Crimson and an Ivy League championship.

The laxwomen fought a well-balanced attack, led by top Crimson scorer Francesca Den Hartog, who tallied five goals and two assists. Charlotte Worsley, the goaltender, turned away 16 of Yale's 19 shots and helped direct the Crimson's tight defense.

"Today we were just clicking, playing the tight zone defense feeding the open player, using the width of the field more," coach Carol Kleinfelder said.

The cold hurt the team in the early going with Yale drawing first blood at 18:12--before the Harvard team could even warm up. The Crimson, realizing the possibility of an upset, wasted no time and responded with five unanswered goals in quick succession. The first two, hurled by Maureen Finn and Cat Ferrante, were unassisted and started the barrage that lasted throughout the half.

The scores just kept on coming--three minutes, five goals. Den Hartog scored with an assist by Ferrante: three to one. Then Ferrante scored with an assist by Den Hartog: four to one. Jenny White got into the act with an assist by Den Hartog five to one.

Yale finally responded to the onslaught with a goal by Julie Donhan, with 3:46 left in the half. Harvard came back with a rally, and in the last two minutes before the half fired off three scoring shots.

In the second half the pace of the game changed, but the one-sided play didn't. Yale's Kristin Spaeth got off a dribbler of a shot that squeaked into the corner of the goal to make it 8-3. The only damage was an upset Crimson goalie Worsley.

Angry

Angered back into action by the garbage goal. Worsley turned away all of Yale's remaining 11 shots while passing the ball upfield to the sophomore-senior combination of Kerry Bryan and White. Bryan and White each in turn passed to Den Hartog, who scored two goals in the final minutes to cap Harvard's day. Den Hartog's last goal was a wheel-pivot and unload shot that left the Yale goalie cringing in the corner.

Defensive standouts for the Crimson were Maureen Finn, who hustled back to defense and worked well in the corners to check the ball attack, and Laurie Gregg, who also turned away Yale efforts to move the ball forward while intercepting frequent Yale passes.

The players and coach were, optimistic about their chances for an Ivy League championship despite the slow play in the second half. "The wind and chill affected both teams. We weren't taking that one extra step--rushing shots." Kleinfelder added.

The laxwomen face Brown tomorrow in Providence. Brown lost to Yale this year by a score of 13-6 earlier in the season.