Undefeated Laxwomen Burn by Scrappy Eagles

The Harvard women's lacrosse team overcame a slow start yesterday at Ohiri Field to defeat an unusually physical Boston College, 14-6, behind the offensive firepower of junior phenom Liz Berkery, senior Elizabeth Hansen and sophomore Francie Walton.

"It was a typical BC game," Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder said. "They were really scrappy and put a lot of pressure on us."

Hansen started off the scoring 2:41 into the first half, and Harvard (4-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy) never trailed.

Harvard junior defender Rachel Burke scored at 5:50 into the half, but the Eagles' Jennifer Barone tallied 15 seconds later to make it 2-1.

Harvard pushed the lead to three when Hansen capitalized on a penalty shit with 17:28 left in the half and Berkery whipped the ball past BC goalie Laura Briggs with 16:48.

BC refused to surrender, however, holding the Crimson--who scored nine goals in the first half against first-ranked Princeton Saturday--scoreless for the rest of the half.

With the defense holding firm, the Eagles went on the attack, tallying twice in the final seven minutes of the half to cut the Crimson lead to 4-3.

"We came out really slow in the first half," Walton said. "It wasn't pretty, but we played a lot better in the second half."

Walton should know. She was the spark that ignited the Crimson in the second half. A defender who played attack last year, the Mather sophomore was moved behind the net to exploit the defensive weakness of the Eagle attackers.

Harvard started the second half by giving up a goal 3:38 into the period, but ripped off three straight including two by Berkery and one by sophmore midfielder Sarah Downing to move ahead 7-4.

"We really came out firing in the second half," Hansen said. "It took us a while to get focused."

The Eagles countered with 13:53 remaining, but Harvard responded with two more (from Walton and Hansen) to put the Crimson up 9-5.

Hansen played a key role in Keeping the Eagles relatively quiet for the remainder of the game.

"She made some double teams that made it tough on BC," Klein felder said.

This is not an unfamilliar role for Hansen, Who used similar tactics in the 1990 NCAA championship game against Maryland to help give the Crimson its first national championship.

The Eagles finished out their scoring at 7:37 to make it 9-6, but the Crimson was not even close to done, as Walton and Berkery put it together tallying one assist and one goal in the final seven minutes.

Downing also scored again on an assist from Walton, while senior defender Becky Gaffney tallied on an assist from Berkery.

Matching the outstanding performances Berkey and Walton was the stellar defensive play of senior Co-Captain Ceci Clark, who had the duty of guarding the Eagles' top attacker, Katy Finch.

"Ceci really played finch tough and helped control the game," Klein felder said.

With such firm protection from her teammates, senior goalie Sarah Leary only had to face four finished the game with eight saves.

Senior Becky Gaffney attributed the team's slow start to last Saturday's matchup against Princeton.

"We were really gunning for Princeton, and we may have overlooked BC a little in our preparations for Princeton," Gaffney said. "BC is the toughest team we've faced so far. They were really willing to attack and take it to us, but we got our game going in the crimson half."

The Crimson will have to start much faster this Friday, when it faces a tough New Hampshire team at 3 p.m. at Ohiri Field.