Laxwomen Dump B.C., 7-1; Notch First Win in a Week

They say that the best offense is a good defense, but when you have absolutely no offense at all, your defense just won't do it for you Boston College discovered that last night, falling to the Harvard women's lacrosse team, 7-1, at Alumni Stadium.

With all the Eagle offensive players back on defense, B.C. was able to play both a zone and a man-to-man defense simultaneously against the potent Crimson offense. But the Eagles were unable to muster even the semblance of an offensive threat. Harvard, on the other hand, had no problem scoring despite all the Eagles' efforts.

The win ups Harvard's record to 3-2-1 and is the laxwomen's first victory in over a week. The Crimson bowed to Maryland and Princeton and tied Temple since beating Penn. Although the Eagles do not rank as highly as the Crimson's most recent competition, the squad had no trouble getting up for the game.

"There wasn't a letdown." Senior Jeanne Piersak said after the game. "We felt like we had to bounce back. We wanted a win under our belt since we hadn't had one in awhile".

With a little over two minutes gone in the game, the Crimson began its bouncing back Sophomore defense wing Ellen Velie brought the ball down field and passed to Maureen Finn who was open 10 feet in front of the B.C. net. In one graceful motion. Finn caught the ball and then sent it flying into the upper left-hand corner of the B.C. net for Harvard's first tally of the evening.

Five minutes later the Eagles' defensive strategy came back to haunt them. With everybody and their cousin in front of the Eagle net, someone was bound to get called for blocking the shooting lane--exactly what happened at 17.03 in the first hall.

On the ensuing free position. Gem Simmons flicked a high shot into the corner of the net to give the Crimson a 2.0 margin Maggie Hart scored twice in the first stanza. Finn tallied again and freshman Blair Wardenburg scored her first goal of the season to make the halftime score 6-0.

Because of the collapsing B.C. defense, the pace of the game was slow and Harvard spent most of its energy on passing. The Crimson had only 16 shots on net all game while the Eagles just had three.

"I was surprised by it [the B.C. strategy]," Piersak said. "We didn't have Francesca [Den Hartog, who was out with a bad back], but they must have been worried".

Although the Crimson pressure lessened in the second half when it scored only one goal and allowed B.C. a tally. Harvard should be in good shape for Saturday's 2 p.m. matchup against Holy Cross at Soldier's Field.

THE NOTEBOOK: Before Saturday's game, there will be a high school contest and the opposing coaches will be Harvard women's lacrosse alumni. Both Anne Velie, sister of current team member Ellen Velie, and Chris Sailer were members of the '81 squad that went 18.2. Both were named All-Ivy.