UNH Trips Laxwomen, 7-6

The bad news about Harvard's appearance in yesterday's semifinals of the ECAC women's lacrosse tournament in Durham, N.H., is that the Crimson was eliminated, 7-6, by the University of New Hampshire.

The good news is that Harvard (9-4-1) outplayed the tourney's number-one seed, and the laxwomen still have Tuesday's showdown for the Ivy League title with Dartmouth--another tournament loser yesterday.

"We did everything but win the game," said Crimson Coach Carole Kleinfelder, after watching her squad control the clock, take more shots, and get to more loose balls. "They [UNH] capitalized on every break, and that is the sign of a great team."

After trailing 4-2 at the half, Harvard recovered with two quick tallies at the start of the second frame--both by standout freshman Char Joslin.

Joslin, who registered three goals in the game and now has 32 for the year, struck just 22 seconds into the second half to narrow the Crimson deficit to one. Amazingly, it took her only 14 seconds more to knot the contest at 4-4.

UNH (11-3) countered with a goal three minutes later to regain the lead, but consecutive tallies by Harvard captain and leading scorer Kelly McBride (two goals, two assists) and Joslin within a 53-second span gave the Crimson its first lead of the half.

Joslin's go-ahead goal came off a feed from McBride in a one-on-one situation, but the Harvard lead was short-lived. UNH center and leading scorer, Pauline Collins, tallied off Crimson sophomore goaltender Kelly Dermody nine minutes and 59 seconds into the second half to tie the contest for a second time.

Collins' score brought to a close an offensive onslaught that saw Harvard and UNH combine for six goals in less than 10 minutes.

Despite the flurry of goals, it was the Crimson's play between the 15-minute mark and the time of the Wildcats' game-winning goal with 4:21 remaining that proved to be the difference in the game.

"We had a lot of chances during that stretch," Kleinfelder said, "but crucial turnovers in transition killed us."

"This was a beatable team," the ninth-year Harvard coach continued. "We were clearly in command of the game, except for that one stretch. I thought we gave them a good run for it."

With just over four minutes to go, Collins notched the game-winner off a deflection in front of the net. Dermody lined up to make the save, but the ball hit off the stick of a Crimson defender and caromed past Dermody.

Although the Wildcats' zone defense forced the Crimson into several poor shots, Kleinfelder said that, in the end, it was her own squad's youth and lack of confidence that stood in the way of a trip to today's finals.

"I'm not sure that UNH beat us so much as we beat ourselves," Kleinfelder said.

THE NOTEBOOK: The three-time defending ECAC-champion Wildcats face UMass (a 12-4 winner over Dartmouth) in today's final...Kate Felsen was the only other Harvard player to score yesterday...The Crimson and Big Green will both enter Tuesday's match-up at Soldiers Field at 5-0 in the Ivies, and it will mark the fourth time in five years that these two teams will meet to decide the league title.