Tim Pendergast

With Harvard's men's lacrosse team leading, 16-7, late in last Saturday's match against Adelphi, Crimson Coach Bob Scalise took out starting goalie and senior Co-captain Tim Pendergast for the final seven minutes, treating the veteran to cheers from the appreciative spectators and the Harvard bench.

Pendergast turned in a typically solid performance in goal, thwarting Adelphi's attempts to get back into the game. "Tim comes to play every time," Scalise says. "He hasn't played a bad game all year."

With a reliable man in one of lacrosse's most crucial positions, one has to look elsewhere to explain the Crimson's 6-7 record this season. The laxmen's 12-4 mark last year earned them the top spot in New England, second place in the Ivy League, and 12th-ranking in the nation. This year, the squad must defeat Dartmouth in its finale this weekend to reach the 500 mark for the first time.

"We are a really young team," Pendergast says (16 of 25 players are freshmen or sophomores), "and we lost our confidence early, especially since the hardest part of the season was our first two games." The Crimson fell to national powerhouses Johns Hopkins (top-ranked so far this year). 11-3, and to nine-time defending Ivy champion Cornell, 14-9, en route to a horrid 1-5 start.

The youth and inexperience has especially crippled the midfield. "We haven't been able to get the ball up from the midfield, and with the exception of the last two games, we haven't been picking up the ground balls," Pendergast explains.

And what does a low-scoring offense do to the team's other half? "It puts a lot more pressure on the defense," Scalise says, but the unit as a whole and particularly Pendergast have responded to help turn the season around. The coach adds that "the defense has been playing a lot more consistently lately."

All of this has placed a good deal of pressure on Pendergast, who must play well and boost the younger teammates' morale at the same time. Says Scalise, "He's been a great captain just by his great play," which inspires teammates to try just as hard.

Pendergast, always giving credit to the defense in front of him, explains that after the poor start, "the whole defense expected that low scoring output and it is trying to hold it together. We just try to do the best we can." As for the morale problem, the netminder asserts that "any negative feeling has been combatted pretty quickly. We tried to point out the positive areas. We didn't give up, and we've put it together."

Pendergast, who is listed as 6 ft., 4 in and 210 pounds, played lacrosse in high school, but his initial interest with sports at Harvard was football. But as a varsity backup goalie freshman year, he became hooked on lacrosse for the first time. "The competition I had in high school was nothing compared to what I've seen here," he said, explaining why he didn't consider playing for a lacrosse powerhouse like Cornell, where up to 5000 fans turn out for games (while rarely more than 200 show up at the B School field for Harvard's games).

"As a prayer, I've learned all my lacrosse at Harvard. I worked with goaltending coach Scott Anderson, and I've put it together since then." The Rhode Island native started after the third game of his sophomore year, and has turned into a steady backup ever since. With a save average consistently over 60 percent, he was All-Ivy honorable mention last year, and has the second-best save average of Ivy starting goalies this year.

"Tim is a great shotstopper," Scalise says. "He has the quickest hands of any goaltender. He's also an excellent passing goalie, possessing a quick outlet pass."

Pendergast credits his defense for his own success throughout his Crimson career as well as in this year's rough stretches. "The people in front of me have made a huge difference in my play in four years. The shots I've had to stop have been from far away and have been ones I've expected."

The veteran goaltender sees a bright future for the lacrosse team. "The coach is doing a great job with the problem as a whole. We didn't have a great recruiting season, but with this season under their belt, the players should be much better."

As for his own future, Pendergast, who majors in Sociology with a Religion minor, will teach religion and coach lacrosse at the Canterbury School, a private school in Connecticut.