W. Lax Drops Heartbreaker to UNH

Forget about fierce attackers and stingy goalkeepers. Stifling defenders and unfriendly weather conditions are no need for worry.

Apparently, the greatest opponent of the Harvard women's lacrosse team is time.

The Crimson (5-8, 2-4 Ivy) lost a difficult 11-9 tug-of-war battle to the University of New Hampshire yesterday afternoon in Durham, New Hampshire. Harvard, a relatively young team that has struggled all year to find a cohesive and aggressive offense, was thwarted in its quest for victory by the sands of time.

"If we would have had more time, the game would probably have gone the other way for us," junior tri-captain Becca Brown said. "It became a constant battle between the two teams, where [UNH] would score and then we would score."

"We played well, but we ended up playing catch-up the entire game," tri-captain Claudia Asano said. "We scored some good goals, but we just ran out of time."

For the Crimson, freshman attacker Heather Hussey, Harvard's only multi-goal scorer during the match, led the way with two goals.

Junior Ashley Birch, freshman Gretchen Puttkamer, sophomore Megan Austin, sophomore Melissa Crandall, freshman Hillary Walton and sophomore Lauren Corkery each contributed one goal to the Crimson attack.

Sophomore goalkeeper Keltie Donelan accumulated five saves in 60 minutes and withstood her eighth loss of the season.

At the start of the game, the Wildcats surged to a quick 3-0 lead as a lax Harvard offense stood by on the sidelines.

"We didn't start off aggressively, but [UNH] definitely started off the game playing well," Brown said.

Finally, however, Harvard's attackers warmed up to the challenge with four unanswered goals. With 3:20 remaining in the first half and the game tied, 3-3, Birch scored another goal for Harvard to give the Crimson what would be a short-lived lead.

UNH came back to tie the game and, with a few seconds left in the first half, scored again to take a precarious 5-4 lead into halftime.

The two teams picked up where they had left off in the first half. The Wildcats started the half with two consecutive goals, quickly grabbing a 7-4 advantage.

But Harvard racked up three unanswered goals to tie the game at 7-7 with 15 minutes left in the game. The two teams then exchanged goals.

The second rally turned out to be Harvard's last gasp for the match. UNH went on to score three out of the next four goals as Harvard failed to keep up with a strong Wildcat offense. The Wildcats went on to garner the 11-9 victory.

"During the last two minutes, the score was 10-8, and we had possession for most of that time," Brown said. "We just weren't able to get good looks or make accurate shots at the end. Basically, our biggest challenge during the game was getting over the time mark."

The Crimson can still take a few gems with it from this match. Harvard's offense, crowded by talented freshmen, has attempted all year to find the right chemistry between the older players on the team and the new kids on the block.

Even though it lost, Harvard's ability to score nine goals yesterday against UNH might provide some comfort.

"We really did play well in the match [yesterday]," freshman attacker Melissa Christino said. "We had some good movement but just couldn't catch up to them."

Harvard will try to continue its offensive upswing this weekend. The Crimson's final challenge of the regular season will come at Schoellkopf Field when it travels to Cornell Saturday afternoon.

The Big Red (8-5, 2-4 Ivies) has struggled recently of late. Cornell lost its last match Sunday afternoon at Yale to the No. 11 Bulldogs, which came away with a tough 8-7 victory.

Prior to that loss, the Big Red had suffered a discouraging 12-6 loss to Syracuse. After starting the season on a 6-0 win streak, Cornell has cooled off of late.