Moving Closer: Laxwomen Advance in NCAA Play

Forget the offense for awhile. Forget the attack for awhile. Just for a moment, now, sound the horn, blow the trumpets--the defense is back. Call it The Resurrection.

And call it good timing.

The defense of the Harvard women's lacrosse squad put together one of its finest performances of the year yesterday, as the Crimson shut down a visiting Northwestern team, 9-4, in the first round of the NCAA women's lacrosse tournament. With its convincing victory, Harvard moves into the tourney's quarterfinal round and a Saturday showdown with the University of Massachusetts. The site of the game will be determined by the NCAA today.

The laxwomen will take an impressive 12-3-1 mark and an even more impressive eight-game winning streak into Saturday's match with the tourney's fourth seed. The last time the Crimson dropped a game the date was April 17 and the opponent was the University of Massachusetts.

"I think it'll be a little different this time," senior Kate Martin said after yesterday's victory at the Stadium. "We'll be a bit better prepared."

Judging from the recent performances of the Crimson squad. Martin's analysis seems right on the mark. After a shaky early season start--one that saw the laxwomen drop three of their first eight games--Harvard has trampled eight straight opponents, has garnered the Ivy title and has earned its way into Saturday's round of eight and a shot at a trip to the Final Four next weekend at the University of Pennsylvania.

And with the attack leading the way for much of the season, the emergence of the defense yesterday couldn't have come at a better time. Not that the defense hasn't played well before. And not that the defense was flawless yesterday--by any means.

But what Martin, Jeanne Piersiak, Ellen O'Neill, Ellen Velie and a cast of other defenders did yesterday was shut down--especially in the first half--the Chicago visitors, who at the same time, were giving fits to the Harvard offense. And they shut down a squad that had been averaging nearly 13 goals a game this season and which had the ability to explode at any moment.

"People just really backed each other up today," Martin said. "We filled in the zone as well as we have all year."

Even Crimson Coach Carole Kleinfelder, who was still disturbed by several defensive lapses yesterday, seemed pleased with that group's performance. "When we were set [in the zone], we seemed to do pretty well," she said.

It was that strong zone and aggressive stick checking that the larger and more experienced Harvard squad used especially well in the game's first 20 minutes to stake a 6-0 lead. With Piersiak and Martin giving fits to North western's top two threats, sophomore Kathleen Kochmansky and freshman Lisa Griswold, Francesca DenHartog was slowly upping the Harvard lead.

Cleverly maneuvering her way in front of Wildcat goalie Jane Billeter, DenHartog snagged four of those first six goals in the defensive struggle. "Fran really had a great game," Kleinfelder said afterward. "She kept us in the game."

For after the six early goals and with just five minutes left in the first half, the Wildcats--appearing in the NCAA's in only their second year of intercollegiate play--took advantage of a slight defensive lapse and tallied two scores.

After the two squads swapped goals in the early stages of the second half, putting the score at 8-4, both squads turned to defense. And with Harvard controlling North western's quick breakaway attempts and the Wildcat zone not allowing the Crimson attack a clean shot, the scoreboard didn't change again, until DenHartog added the final score with just 1:27 left.

"We got caught with some bad breaks and as a result it took us almost a half to get going." Northwestern Coach Cindy Timohal said. "We had opportunities but just didn't take advantage."

THE NOTEBOOK: Maureen Finn finished the game with one goal and four assists and Jennifer White snagged the Crimson's two other goals... Northwestern finished its season at 11-3... The three Wildcat losses this year came against Division I opponents and their 11 victories came against Division II and III opponents. 1983 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournament At-A-Glance May 11  May 14  May 21 (at Penn)  May 22 (at Penn) Princeton   Princeton, 12-10 Dartmouth   (1) Temple HARVARD   HARVARD, 9-4 Northwestern   (4) UMass Delaware    Champion   Delaware, 11-7 William & Mary   (3) Maryland Pennsylvania   Pennsylvania, 9-5 Loyola   (2) Penn State

Seedings 1  Temple 2  Penn State 3  Maryland 4  UMass

Seedings 1  Temple 2  Penn State 3  Maryland 4  UMass