Women's Lacrosse Destroys UNH, 17-9

DURHAM, N.H.--Yesterday, the Harvard women's lacrosse team wanted to end its season by proving that Tuesday's game was not a fluke. And that's what the Crimson happen.

Following up its close, 10-8 loss to No. 13 Yale the day before, Harvard went to UNH yesterday and came away with a comfortable, 17-9 win over the overmatched Wildcats.

It was by no means a perfect game, nor even a very good one. The Crimson was plagued with inconsistent play, scoring and giving up goals in sporadic bunches all day.

But even if Harvard (5-8, 1-5 Ivy) went into autopilot sometimes, it was the first time all season that the team could go into autopilot. The eight-goal margin was the Crimson's largest of the season--just as the 17 goals was its highest total--and Harvard did not trail after the game's first eight minutes.

At the very least, the Crimson did what it had to do to win.

"I'd say that [Tuesday] was a better game," said Harvard coach Carole Kleinfelder. "But it was nice to end on a good note. It's nice to have a win, it really is."

Coming into the game, Harvard had lost eight out of its last nine games, a run that goes back to Spring Break. So although the Yale game was a good showing, the Crimson wanted results, not another moral victory.

Results are what happened. All the seniors except goaltender Shana Barghouti ended their careers by scoring goals, and Harvard controlled the draws and the ground balls, meaning that UNH (4-9) was almost never on offense.

But the Wildcats did capitalize on their chances. UNH's Becky Perkins and Samantha Holmes, who took part in every Wildcat goal, were able to take advantage of transition opportunities and Crimson miscues to keep the game close for its first 15 minutes.

New Hampshire took a 2-0 lead on two free position shots in the first six minutes of the game, but Harvard senior Liz Hren and co-captain Daphne Clark scored back-to-back a minute apart. On the next draw, junior Holly Rogers ran all the way down the field and gave Harvard its first lead.

UNH, however, retook the lead four minutes later on two quick transition goals.

That was Harvard's main trouble yesterday--moments of great playing would be followed by lulls that UNH would take advantage of.

Still, the Crimson's good out-weighed its bad by more than enough. Harvard scored the final six goals of the first half, turning a deficit into a huge 9-4 lead.

"[Sometimes on offense] we didn't work it around that much," senior Liz Schoyer said. "We went back to our old habits of turning it over. Once we worked it around, it was more effective."

On defense, Harvard pressed the UNH transition, forcing the Wildcats into quite a few turnovers as well. However, the Crimson usually had more players nearer to the ball, as the Wildcats spread the field to protect against easy goals, which allowed Harvard to scrounge up most of the ground balls.

So even if a Harvard player dropped the ball, a teammate would usually pick it up. UNH did not have that luxury.

In the second half, the Crimson kept the Wildcats at an arms distance, scoring a goal or two whenever UNH cut the lead to six.

Junior Honor MacNaughton led Harvard with three goals, and five players had two apiece. UNH  9 Harvard  17