Laxwomen Fall to Loyola, End Season

Without a lot of goals, it's tough to win a lacrosse game.

And the Harvard women's lacrosse team certainly did not score often enough to merit a victory against Loyola (Md.) on Saturday in its 9-4 loss, which eliminated the Crimson from the NCAA tournament.

"It was a tough game," said senior Sarah Downing, who scored two goals in the contest. "They're a great team, and we had trouble scoring."

The game marked the second time that Harvard (5-1 Ivy, 11-4 overall) has lost of Loyola. The Crimson fell on April 9 by the score of 11-10.

At first, the teams were even. Loyola tallied its first goal three minutes into the game, but Downing responded a minute later with a goal of her own on a breakaway, making the score 1-1.

That would be Harvard's last goal for a long time, however.

The Crimson attack was shut out of the net for the next 50:20 of the game, during which Loyola built up a 9-1 lead.

"We had a fast break transition going on early in the game," junior Megan Colligan said, "but we weren't scoring off of it. Loyola tended to work a slow, patient offense, and once we got behind, we got too conservative and were reticent to rush the ball down the field."

And the few times when Harvard was able to get a good attack going, getting the ball into the net proved to be extremely difficult--Loyola goaltender Linda Ohrin, doing her best impression of a brick wall, stopped 10 of 14 shots for a 71.4 save percentage.

In all, it was a pretty forgettable game for Harvard.

On paper, the matchup looked to be a close one, as both teams entered the game on emotional highs.

Harvard was coming off of a dominating win at Dartmouth a week ago, while Loyola, well-rested after a three-week break, was pumped up by the prospect of giving its eight seniors a final season to remember for a long. long time.

"We expected more coming off the Dartmouth game," Downing said. "This game was a real disappointment--I really don't know what happened."

As a morose Harvard team found out, the bigger the expectations, the harder they fall.

With every Loyola score and save, the faces on the Harvard faces grew longer and longer, as its chances of surviving in the playoffs slowly fizzled.

"When you get down in a big game they only get more and more psyched and you only get more and more down," Colligan said.

When the Crimson offense finally ended its drought with the last three goals of the game, it was far too little, much too late.

And as the closing whistle sounded, what had become clear in the minutes before was now fact. Harvard's season was over.

It was also the last game for all of Harvard's seniors: Joey Alissi, Emily Buxton, Downing, Kelly Morrison, and the co-captains, Francie Walton and Margot McAnaney.

"It's been a tough season," Colligan said.

"It's unfortunate that the team couldn't send them off with a better game."