Laxwomen Whip Overmatched Brown

It's one down and three to go.

After last Saturday's loss to Maryland, the Harvard women's lacrosse team knew that it had to win the rest of its games to have a chance to making the NCAA tournament.

On Wednesday, Harvard took the first step in that direction by whipping an overmatched Brown team, 13-2. Now all that the Crimson have to do is defeat Cornell today, Dartmouth next Tuesday, and Vermont on the Saturday after that.

No problemo.

Harvard (3-1 Ivy, 8-3 overall) has already lost at many times as past Crimson teams have in the entire season--NCAA Tournaments included--but the team is still ranked fifth in the nation, since the losses were not to cream puffs.

"We've lost to numbers one, two, and three in the country," Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder said after the Maryland loss.

In other words, the Crimson are still a major force in lacrosse. The team has just lost a couple times that's all.

And so tomorrow Harvard hosts the Big of Cornell (0-4 Ivy, 2-7 overall) at Ohiri Field, and if Cornell's past games are any indication of what will happen, the official scorer better get his pencils sharpened.

The Big Red attack will be led by junior Jennifer Bass, who has tallied 29 goals this season, but only one assist.

The next leading goal scorer for Cornell has 13.

Translation: the offense is a one-woman show.

Cornell defense is also always exciting, if being bad can be called exciting. Two netminders split time between the posts, and both have had trouble. Senior Suzanne Caruso has a goals-against average of 12 and a save percentage of 39.3 percent, sophomore Carol Owen's figures are 11.8 and 51.4 percent, respectively.

In comparison, Harvard's goalie, freshman Kate Schutt, has given up only 6.18 goals per game and has blocked 57.2 percent of all incoming shots.

Of course, unlike Cornell, Harvard does not seem to employ the "Matador Defense." Against Brown, Schutt faced six shots on the game, thanks to defenders such as co-captains Francie Walton and Margot McAnaney.

But Cornell is another story. In its 7-16 loss to Penn, Caruso had to face 32, count 'em, 32 shots.

In other words, the Harvard offense ought to have a field day, and the team should win by 10 goals or more.

Around the Ivies, Princeton is still unbeaten and riding high.

The Tigers (5-0 Ivy, 9-0 overall ) are ranked third in the nation, but have their work cut out for them for the rest of the season, as there are still four top 15 teams on their schedule--#12 Delaware, #9 Penn State, #11 James Madison, and then #2 Maryland.

Harvard and Dartmouth are tied for second place in the Ancient Eight with 2-1 league records, and Penn is notched at fourth with a 3-3 mark, followed by Yale, Brown and them Cornell...

All the Ivy League Players of the Week this season, offensively and defensively, have been from either Princeton or Dartmouth.