Cahow Transitions From Ice to Astroturf

Sophomore Kathryn Tylander, the starting goalkeeper for the women’s lacrosse team, walked assisted off Jordan Field with a torn ACL in the final minute of the March 16 game against Syracuse. As she stepped to the sidelines, the Crimson saw both an injured teammate and the shallowness of its roster.

Harvard was left with only one keeper on its lineup but needed to dress out two for games. To exacerbate the Crimson’s personnel problems, its second goalie, junior Kristen Demorest, soon fell ill with bronchitis.

Harvard women’s lacrosse had a void to fill, but the Bright Hockey Center was only a stone’s throw away. This spring, sophomore Caitlyn Cahow is trading ice for astroturf.

Ordinarily a defenseman on the Harvard women’s ice hockey team, Cahow has twice suited up for the lacrosse team, picking up substantial playing time in the team’s last two games.

“We just have been having a hard time with goalies this year. We lost our starting goalie to an ACL in the third game. We had our backup goalie, so she was doing fine, but she got sick last week,” said women’s lacrosse head coach Sarah Nelson. “We knew we had to find somebody.”

When Cahow is on the ice, she is in her element. After beginning the year on offense, Cahow shifted to the back, where she scored one of Harvard’s three goals in Harvard’s loss in the March 27 women’s NCAA championship game. Cahow assisted on Nicole Corriero’s opening goal in Crimson’s 4-1 win in the NCAA semifinals over St. Lawrence and totaled six goals and 29 assists for the 2004-05 season.

Nor is she a stranger to lacrosse, having played at the secondary level at Hotchkiss, though mainly as an attack.

“[Playing college lacrosse] was always something that I’d wanted to do and it was kind of disappointing when I realized that I couldn’t,” Cahow said. “This in itself was a wonderful opportunity.”

All it took was a little serendipity. Cahow heard of the opening through hockey teammates, some of whom live with lacrosse co-captain Kelly Noon.

“We invited her out. She said she’d come, and she did great,” Nelson said. “She practiced with us one day on Friday and did awesome. We actually had to play her on Saturday–not just had to, wanted to.”

Cahow’s first collegiate lacrosse game was a trial by fire. With no game experience and barely any practice, she was Harvard’s sole option at keeper against No. 15 Penn.

Cahow lasted 66 minutes in goal, as the game went into overtime. While the Crimson fell 11-9, Cahow fended off nine shots.

“I was really excited about my performance this weekend. A lot of it was adrenaline I was really excited to be there,” Cahow said.

While a more subdued showing against New Hampshire (1 save, 7 goals allowed in 16:11) doesn’t attest to it as well, what works on the rink can work on the lacrosse field.

“She’s very athletic and she has great hand eye coordination,” lacrosse co-captain Catherine Sproul said. “She’s a hockey player, so she’s not afraid of the ball.”

Without as much experience, Cahow is trading on innate talent and instinct.

“She can stop balls,” Noon said. “Even though she doesn’t have as much training, she’s really able to predict where the ball’s going to be.”

When her now-fellow lacrosse players talk about her, though, they talk as much about her “spark” as her speed and dexterity. She has the edge of a hockey player, and she carries it into practice.

“With the hockey team in general, there’s a much higher level of competition in practice. We expect the best from each other at all times...With lacrosse, there are more players, which makes it difficult to have fierce, tough competition continuously for practice,” Cahow said. “That’s something I can be helpful with.”

By her own estimation, Cahow’s contribution this season will be largely to practice as Demorest returns to wellness. The hockey team will not begrudge her choice to spend time outdoors and in front of a goal.

“I take hockey very seriously, as do my teammates and coaches. It was important to me that I discuss this with my teammates and coaches,” Cahow said. “The overwhelming response was very supportive.”

The ice hockey coaching staff is understandably understanding, as Cahow’s crossover follows in something of a tradition of overlap between Harvard’s ice hockey and lacrosse programs. While an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire, ice hockey head coach Katey Stone was captain of, and a four-year letterman for, both its hockey and lacrosse teams. Twice an All-American lacrosse player, she helped lead the Wildcats to their 1985 national championship. Ice hockey assistant coaches Claudia Asano ‘99 and Jamie Hagerman ‘03 should be able to empathize as well. Both split their significant time spent in Allston between hockey and lacrosse. Hagerman came to Harvard as a two-sport athlete, but an ACL tear her sophomore year forced her to stick with hockey, while Asano was a three-year letter-winner in both.

And when the Crimson faced off against Stone’s alma mater, her loyalties fell to Cahow.

“I got a message on my phone this morning from Katey Stone telling me to take it to UNH,” Cahow said.

The support between the programs is allowing the three-sport high school star to be a double letterman at Harvard.

“I think that the lacrosse team has such amazing potential here I’d love to be a part of it any way possible. As far as the next season, I want to stick with it,” Cahow said. “I’m content with just working hard in practice.”

And with one other goalie on active roster, the lacrosse team is content to have her.

“She was so nice to come and help us out in a bind this year,” Nelson said. “We just will take whatever she can give.”

—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.