Laxwomen Lose, 8-7

Like the unsuspecting and hapless postman, the Harvard women's lacrosse team was greeted by a terrible surprise yesterday, as Yale's pesky Bulldogs whipped the visiting Crimson, 8-7 and took a good-sized chunk out of the laxwomen's Ivy League title chances.

The loss drops Harvard's record in Ivy competition to 4-1, leaving the Crimson in a deadlock with Penn, which suffered its only setback of the season at Harvard's hands.

If both teams win their remaining game (Harvard travels to Hanover to face Dartmouth May 6), the Crimson would bring home only hall a championship despite its 8-7 win over the Quakers during Spring Break.

Big Comeback

The Elis came out snarling, notching three early goals before Jenny White got the laxwomen on the scoreboard with the first of her game-high three goals.

"The desire just wasn't there," said CoCaptain Anne MacMillan after the game. "Yale was just really, really psyched.

"To them it was the Harvard-Yale game [the contest was even played at the Yale Bowl]. For in it was just another game," she commented.

The Bulldogs led, 4-1, at the end of the first 25 minutes of play, but it appeared that the Crimson might shake off the frisky Elis as it started to take control of the game in the second stanza, scoring three unanswered goals before Yale responded with a tally of its own.

Up 7-5, Harvard looked like it was going to cruise to its fifth straight by win, but after another Yale tally, Crimson Coach Carole Kleinfelder ordered her team into a stall, which as defender Beth Mullen put it, "was a little disorganized" and allowed the Bulldogs two late goals that broke the Crimson's middle-of-the-season winning streak at four.

"It was really frustrating," junior Maureen Finn said after the game. "It was a really physical game, and the refs didn't call them that close."

"Yale was fast," she continued, and they ran the ball real well. We came back strong in the second half, but then they came back strong too. We just weren't that calm about it."

Back to New Haven

The laxwomen won't have too much time to regain their composure, however, because this weekend they travel back into Eli country, to defend their Eastern AIAW championship. Harvard faces none other than host Yale in the first round of the tournament.

Despire the quick rematch, the Crimson has no qualms about this weekend's contest. "When we play Saturday, we'll get revenge," goal keeper Charlotte Worsley said.

"This game was just a mental thing," MacMillan said. "It's just a matter of wanting to win and realizing that every body is out to beat us. This Saturday, though, we'll be looking for revenge blood revenge."