Fighting Irish Succeeds Against W. Lacrosse

After St. Patrick's Day, it's no surprise that the luck of the Irish smiled upon the team with the fitting name.

Yesterday, the Harvard women's lacrosse team fell to the Notre Dame

Fighting Irish, 8-3, on Jordan Field. Harvard drops to 2-1 on the season, while Notre Dame improves to 3-1 overall and is a perfect 3-0 on its Spring Break road trip.

The Fighting Irish were paced offensively by senior Lael O'Shaughnessy, who netted two goals and assisted on two others. The 5'5 attacker led a physical and intimidating Notre Dame attacked that wore down the Crimson defense as the afternoon wore on.

"It was a very physical game and we had most of our chances early," said Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder. "Once they got the lead though, they

just got tougher and tougher from a physical as well as mental standpoint."

In the early going, the Crimson was able to penetrate the Irish zone and

create some scoring opportunities. The Crimson drew first blood when sophomore midfielder Katie Shaughnessy converted an Ashley Harmeling pass in the eighth minute for a 1-0 lead.

Two minutes later, it appeared as though Harvard had extended its lead to 2-0 when junior attacker Heather Hussey put a shot into the net. However, the referee ruled that Hussey had committed a crease violation and the goal was disallowed.

Then, in the 18th minute, things began to unravel for the Crimson. O'Shaughnessy's first goal at 17:11 knotted the game at 1-1 and was followed by a tally from sophomore defender Jen Berarducci twenty seconds later. The two scores gave the Fighting Irish a lead they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Although Crimson freshman Ashley Harmeling pulled Harvard back into a 2-2 tie with in the 22nd minute, Notre Dame responded over the next two minutes with two goals to give the Irish a 4-2 halftime lead.

The story of the second half was the stellar play of Irish sophomore goaltender Jen White. White shut down the Crimson attack with eight second-half saves, allowing only one goal in the second frame.

"Notre Dame's goalie was really strong and she just kept stopping all our shots," said senior attacker Lauren Corkery.

White finished with a career-high 14 saves and anchored a resilient and stingy Irish defense. Notre Dame held only a narrow 23-22 shot advantage over the Crimson, but White's superlative goaltending helped keep Harvard scoreless for over 28 minutes at one point.

Capitalizing on Harvard's offensive drought, Notre Dame cranked up the intensity and pulled away in the final frame. Goals from O'Shaughnessy, Kassen Delano, Kelly McCardell and Alissa Moser distanced the Irish from the Crimson as the game wore down to a close.

Co-captain Alli Harper, who was very impressive with an eight-goal

performance against Boston College earlier in the week, largely struggled to create offensive opportunities yesterday because of Notre Dame's stifling defense. She did, however, notch the final Crimson goal with thirty seconds left in the game to bring Harvard to the final 8-3 margin.

"Alli's really been playing great, but we have to work more on our attack

and especially on our tackling back," Kleinfelder said.

The Crimson, while disappointed over yesterday's loss, hopes to regroup heading into this weekend's Ivy contest at Brown. Harvard will look start its Ivy campaign with a win and improve upon last year's 3-4 league record.

"We learned from this game and the first loss is definitely a wake-up call," Corkery said. "We'll work hard in practice this week, and we'll be very positive [heading into the Brown game]."