Wildcats Maul Crimson in Loss

The last minutes of yesterday’s Harvard women’s lacrosse game against the University of New Hampshire disappeared from the clock a little more quickly than usual. Once the Wildcats (6-5, 1-0 America East) got up on the Crimson (2-8, 0-2 Ivy) by a 10-point margin with 20:57 left, officials let the clock run inexorably towards the end of Harvard’s 15-5 loss.

Freshman midfielder Natalie Curtis narrowed New Hampshire’s lead to nine when, with 17:14 left, she capitalized on a shot from free position, slowing the game back down and keeping alive a streak of scoring in every game in which she has played this season.

An unassisted goal from midfielder Kristin Blanchette restarted continuous time with 13:40 left. While freshman attack Tara Schoen scored her second goal of the game by driving in a shot from close and low, the Crimson could not reduce its margin of defeat to single digits.

For Harvard, the game followed on the heels of an inspiringly close loss to No. 16 Penn and offered the team a tempting opportunity to redeem itself from a seven-game losing streak. Within minutes it was clear that New Hampshire would deny the Crimson a long-sought check in the win column.

“It was definitely a hard loss,” co-captain Kelly Noon said. “A lot of it’s mental preparation. We got down a lot of goals early in the beginning. We can’t get down 7 goals—it’s too big a hole to climb out of.”

The Wildcats hit early and hit hard, seizing the first draw control and shooting four times before midfielder Kristin Blanchette found the back of the net just over two minutes into the game. Once New Hampshire started scoring, it didn’t stop until late in the half, when it found itself on top of a 7-0 lead.

Underpinning the Wildcats’ attack were the basics of getting the ball downfield—passing and shooting. New Hampshire’s attack was fleet of foot and its propensity for the long pass stretched Harvard’s defense to the breaking point.

Attack Jess Burnap stood out as the Wildcats’ early big-play threat, exploiting New Hampshire’s fast-break speed to score three in the first. She finished the game with four goals and two ground balls to her credit.

Yet the Wildcats had more at its disposal. Fresh from a Monday game in which she tallied a school-record nine goals against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, New Hampshire’s Katie Leland led scoring for the team with five goals and tallying three assists.

The Wildcats went on another scoring binge early in the second half, when they posted six consecutive goals.

At the front of the charge was Leland, who scored three goals in just over five minutes.

On the receiving end were Crimson goalies junior Kristin Demorest and sophomore Caitlyn Cahow, who combined for nine saves.

“I think definitely they were really fast and really strong, and coming at us really strong in the midfield,” Noon said. “Going into the game, we knew the midfield was going to be huge.”

The Crimson had trouble matching the New Hampshire potential—in fact, Harvard scored only as many goals as Leland.

Missed passes in the midfield left Harvard unable to sustain a compelling attack and meant that once the ball was in Crimson hands, it was not guaranteed to remain there for long.

“We were just flat-out turning the ball over way too much in midfield,” Sproul said. “I would say because they’re such a fast team, maybe we were getting tired and that was causing turnovers. It’s hard to hold on to passes when you’re tired.”

Harvard turned the ball over 26 times in the game.

“They were two, three steps ahead of us,” co-captain Catherine Sproul said. “I think that that created many more possessions for them and many more chances to go to the goal.”

The game was not without a few glimmers of hope for Harvard. The Crimson scored three consecutive goals around halftime, as with 7:29 left in the first, Curtis found Schoen open in the middle, and Schoen slung the ball to the high corner of the net.

Sophomore attack Liz Gamble scored two in as many minutes almost as soon as the second half began. Gamble notched the first from free position and found the second after swinging around from behind the goal, picking up a defender, spinning by her and shooting across her body.

Harvard faces a trying week on the road, with matches scheduled against No. 4 Princeton on Saturday and No. 7 Dartmouth on Wednesday.

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