W. Lax Beats Lions To Get First Ivy Win

On Senior Day at Jordan Field, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team finally conquered the adverse weather conditions that have plagued it all season long, hanging on to beat Columbia 10-8 in the final home game for the team’s five seniors and legendary coach Carole Kleinfelder.

“We went into it knowing it was Carole’s last game, and we went in with the mind set that we had to win,” sophomore Kelly Noon said.

The Crimson (3-10, 1-5 Ivy) frequently fell victim to the cold, blustery conditions that have so often handcuffed its play at home, never adequately adjusting to the driving rains that shut it down as well as any opponent.

“I would say we have definitely had our fair share of games in bad weather,” Noon said. “We’ve definitely gotten used to it. Every game [in these conditions] makes you better.”

Tied at eight with less than five minutes to go, Harvard took to the attack, driving toward the Lions’ (5-9, 1-6) goal before settling in to wait for a better scoring opportunity.

It didn’t take long.

With the Crimson swinging the ball from side to side waiting for the right shot, Columbia freshman keeper Marcela Calidonia became edgy with her team’s inability to recover possession.

So when an entry pass was hurled diagonally across the goal mouth to junior midfielder Jen Brooks a few feet to her right, Calidonia lunged forward, taking herself out of position in an attempt to intercept it and halt the Crimson attack.

But Calidonia did not reach the ball and it snuck by her to a waiting Brooks, who tucked the ball into co-captain midfielder Katie Shaughnessy’s stick on the opposite side of the goal mouth.

With one fluid stroke, Shaughnessy buried the ball in the back of the net and with it, any lingering fears about a winless Ivy season.

“I don’t think it was a layup goal, but [Calidonia] was definitely out of position,” Noon said. “She went for the first fake and lunged, so there was an open net to score.”

Shaughnessy stole the show in her final home game, netting the game winner as part of a hat trick that extended her goal-scoring streak to six games. She also added an assist.

“I wanted to win [and] I wanted our team to win,” Shaughnessy said. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d played a great game and our team had lost.”

Thoughts of victory were far from the players’ minds when Columbia took a two-goal lead midway through the first half.

“I would say that in the beginning we came out a little slow, let them have a few open cutters right out in front of the goal,” Noon said. “We definitely cleaned it up second half when we had to.”

But Harvard kept pace with the Lions for a while, matching them goal-for-goal over the first 11 minutes of the first half. The Crimson couldn’t keep up, though, and two more Columbia goals broke the tie.

“They caught us on our heels at the beginning of the game,” Shaughnessy said. “I think it fueled us to try that much harder, looking up at the score, saying the score should not be what it is now.”

After performing below expectations in the first half of the period, junior goaltender Laura Mancini was pulled from the game and the outlook did not offer much promise.

Shaughnessy scored to pull the squad within one with 11:22 remaining before the teams traded goals to end the half.

With the beginning of the second half, Mancini returned to the game and, awakened by her benching, rose to the occasion.

Mancini turned away all but two of the 14 shots she faced in the period, including stopping a free position shot.

Stonewalling the Lions, Mancini saved point-blank shots on three occasions to set the stage for Shaughnessy’s heroics.

“The shots that they were getting in the first half were good shots,” Shaughnessy said. “When [Mancini] came back in the second half, it gave our team a huge boost, making save after save after save. It is what got us going.”

Despite turning the ball over 18 times and earning only two free-position opportunities, Harvard launched 25 shots Calidonia’s way, testing her repeatedly and ensuring that it was only a matter of time before she was beaten.

In previous games, the volume of shots on net has played a hand in deciding the Crimson’s fate—it has lost every game in which it could not manage at least 20 shots.

In the second half, Harvard converted on 50 percent of its efforts with Brooks finding the net twice and Shaughnessy, Sproul and sophomore midfielder Elaine Belitsos scoring once apiece, Belitsos for the second time on the afternoon.

Coach Kleinfelder’s legendary career draws to a conclusion as the Crimson rounds out its season next Saturday, squaring off against Cornell at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.