Women's Lacrosse Suffers Mile-High Defeat

DENVER—A spring break trip west got wild in a hurry for the Harvard women’s lacrosse team on Tuesday afternoon, as the Crimson was undone by the unfamiliar Mile High air and the No. 15 Denver women in a 20-7 loss to the Pioneers in front of 144 fans at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

Harvard (2-5) dug itself a hole early and couldn’t bounce back, giving up the game’s first goal only 27 seconds into play. Just 18 seconds later, Denver (9-1) was on the board again, and the score was 4-0 just ten minutes into the game.

“They just outmatched us at the beginning in every way,” Crimson coach Sarah Nelson said. “They were faster, tremendous shooters, and quicker to the ball. I thought we had a slow start, slower than I would have liked.”

The Pioneers’ scoring outburst—the team’s 20 goals tied a season-high—was sparked by the exceptional play of Denver’s Kristie Leggio. The senior midfielder ended the day with 13 total points, seven coming on assists—both the best in Pioneer history. The record-setting performance came just days after Leggio was named conference Player of the Week, but the scoring spree still came as a surprise to Harvard.

“Denver’s a team we’ve never played before and we weren’t quite sure what to expect,” co-captain Perry Barlow said. “We knew they were good, but they came out and they were strong and they were fast…and we’ve been adjusting to the altitude.”

The Crimson was finally able to break through the thin air and the Pioneer defense just over 20 minutes into the first half, when sophomore attack Kaitlin Martin took a pass from freshman attack Sarah Flood and scored the team’s first goal of the game. The score was 6-1 at that point, but Denver responded just 40 seconds later with a score from Leggio to make it a six-goal margin.

A Harvard timeout followed, but the half’s final nine minutes saw five more Pioneer goals that made the score 12-1 at halftime. Despite an 11-goal lead, Denver only held a five-shot in the first 30 minutes.

The second frame began much like the first, with the Pioneers taking a 13-1 lead just a minute in. But the Crimson responded, as Flood scored unassisted to begin the six-goal half.

“I thought the second half went a lot better, and we talked to our kids about placing their shots and they did that,” Nelson said. “We talked about protecting the ball, and they did that. There were some positives.”

Junior attack Caroline Simmons chipped in two second-half goals, while junior attack Tara Schoen also came off the bench for a score. Sophomore midfielder Sarah Bancroft was responsible for two of Harvard’s last four goals, including the last just 2:20 before game’s end. Soon after her score, however, Bancroft took a big hit from a Denver defender and was helped off the field after a few tense minutes on the grass.

“She twisted her ankle I think, she rolled her ankle in some way,” Nelson said. “But hopefully we’ll have her back for Yale. We need her.”

The focus on the upcoming league schedule did help keep the game—the Crimson’s lone contest outside of New England—in perspective.

“I think that every game is important, but how you do in the league is tremendously important,” Nelson said. “Our league is so strong that if you finish top one or two in the league, you will probably go to the NCAAs. That path is still there.”

It was Harvard’s second-straight game against a ranked opponent, and if anything, the strong competition gives the young Crimson team a benchmark to strive for.

“They were a team we’d like to play like in the future,” Barlow said. “We knew we could have stopped a few of their goals and scored a few more of our own, but we knew that they were a great team. We hope to play like them in a few years.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.