Harvard Teams Head South, West on Spring Break Trips

It will be a busy spring break for several varsity teams, one which will include trips to California, Florida and Texas. Here's a round-up of the Crimson's expected exploits next week:

Baseball

The Harvard baseball team will open its annual trip to the Homestead Challenge with a re-match against budding arch-rival Oklahoma State today at 7 p.m.

The Crimson (2-2) dropped an emotional 8-6 decision last year at Homestead to the Cowboys, and it also lost 10-7 in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament in 1997.

Seniors Andrew Huling and Peter Woodfork have supplied the bulk of the Crimson offense thus far. Huling is batting .417 with five RBI and Woodfork is hitting .357 with five RBI.

Sophomore Scott Carmack, who is battling for a starting outfield job, has started all four games this season and is tied with Huling for the team lead in batting at .417.

Harvard will also face Ohio State, St. Thomas and FIU while in Florida, before making the trek back north to visit Penn and Columbia in its Ivy League openers.

"Some teams will tell you they're just looking to practice over spring training," said Harvard Coach Joe Walsh. "We're not interested in practicing. We want to win."

Crew

Five months of hard training are about to culminate in the start of the spring sprint season for the Harvard lightweight crew.

While the men's heavyweight crew won't start its spring season until April 10, the lightweights open in Philadelphia for the Mathews Cup with Penn and Cornell on April 3.

According to Harvard lightweight co-captain Thomas Fallows, the crucial time for college crew is approaching quickly, and the Crimson will soon see how it stacks up.

"This is the first time since November that we've faced anybody," Fallows said. "The first race of the year, people come into it with a lot of hopes and expectations. The first race is a reality check."

"Every single team comes into its first race with high hopes, and you come out of it with a real sense of who the big players are going to be this year."

The reality for the lightweights is that there are four new members in the boat.

"It's going to be a real testing ground for them and for the boat as a whole," Fallows said.

The two Radcliffe crews will also be testing the waters for the first time this season over spring break.

Both the heavyweights and the lightweights will open at home on April 3. The heavyweights will face Northeastern and Brown, and the lightweights will host George Washington, Tufts and Brown.

M. Lacrosse

With its first win of the season finally under its belt, the Harvard men's lacrosse team now sets its sights on bigger and better opponents as it heads into spring recess.

Tomorrow afternoon at Ohiri field, the Crimson (1-2) will begin its Ivy League season as it hosts rival No. 4 Penn (5-1, 1-0 Ivy). Things don't get much easier for Harvard after the Quakers, however, as the following Saturday the Crimson takes on No. 2 Duke (6-0) in New Canaan, Conn.

These two games represent the toughest challenges for Harvard this season.

Despite its sub-.500 record, the Crimson has been playing fairly well. Leading the way have been sophomore midfielders Dana Sprong and Roger Buttles.

In Harvard's 12-6 victory over Boston College on Wednesday, Sprong netted four goals for the Crimson, while Buttles added two goals and an assist. On the season, Sprong leads the squad with nine goals, while Buttles has netted four goals and three assists of his own.

"It has taken us a little while to get into an offensive flow," Sprong said. "We lost a lot of key players last season, so we've all been trying to find our roles."

The Crimson has improved, but the team still realizes it must be more consistent if it is to have a chance against the Quakers and Blue Devils.

"We've played well at times, but we've not played well consistently," Sprong said. "We know that to have a chance against stronger opposition we'll have to play better throughout the game."

W. Lacrosse

While many students and athletic teams head for warmer climates with beaches and boardwalks over spring break, the Harvard women's lacrosse team will settle for a cheesesteak.

The Crimson (1-1) heads down 1-95 for a week of training in historic Philadelphia.

The practice sessions will be interrupted only by a game against St. Joseph's (0-2) on Wednesday.

Straddling its trip to the City of Brotherly Love, the Crimson will@D: @A:play at Brown (1-2) tomorrow and will return home to host Yale (3-0) next Saturday.

"Sure we'd love to go someplace warm," junior attacker Ashley Birch said. "But it's good just to go somewhere and focus on lacrosse. It will really help our play."

The Crimson hopes that the lacrosse mini-camp will help build off the energy its showed at Boston College on Monday when its offense gelled to explode for 14 goals led by attackers Lauren Corkery, a sophomore, and Katherine Burrage, a freshman. Both players netted three goals.

"In our game on Monday we pulled our intensity together," Birch said. "That's what was needed for our offense to click."

The Crimson will have to maintain that effort for its games this weekend. Its Ivy rivals always sport strong teams and prove difficult wins for the Crimson.

Last season, the Elis defeated Harvard in overtime at New Haven in a game played in the Yale Bowl. Yale has rolled over its three opponents so far this year, but has three more games in the interim.

Birch confessed that her team does not know what to expect from the Hawks on Wednesday. St. Joe's is in a transition year. This season it joined its first conference, the Atlantic 10, and has a new coach.

M. Volleyball

Like many students, the Harvard men's volleyball team (11-8, 1-6 EIVA) is heading to the beach for fun and sun.

The Crimson will play four teams during a California road trip, beginning with tonight's match-up against Sacramento State. Tomorrow, Harvard plays at University of California-Santa Cruz, followed by California Baptist on Monday and University of La Verne on Wednesday.

Harvard is on a three-match winning streak, one that began with a 3-2 win over Queens College, followed by a 3-1 win over MIT in the seniors' home finale. The Crimson's last game was a 3-2 win at Sacred Heart in which Harvard built a 2-0 but barely hung on.

Junior Joe Herger continues to lead the nation in digs per game with 2.86, while co-captain A.J. Lewis is also nationally ranked with 2.72. Junior co-captain Ed Pankau is first in blocks per game at 2.61.