Harvard Finally Halted In Durham

The last 4-0 start for the Harvard women’s lacrosse team came way back in 1992.

A repeat of that achievment was in sight heading in to yesterday afternoon as the Crimson visited New Hampshire (3-2), but the Wildcats, fresh off impressive victories against Connecticut and No. 10 Yale, stopped Harvard’s (3-1) hot start to the 2008 season with a dominating 16-5 win.

It was the first major roadblock this season for a cruising Harvard team that, coming in yesterday afternoon, had trailed for only 26 of its first 180 minutes of play.

“We didn’t come out ready to play,” junior attacker Kaitlin Martin said. “We didn’t come out with any fire.

“New Hampshire came out with something to prove. They came out hard and we weren’t ready for it.”

The Wildcats opened the contest with 18 minutes of shutout play to take a 9-0 lead before the Crimson scored its first goal, a shot from senior defender Lauren Bobzin, assisted by Martin.

New Hampshire responded with two goals of its own in the final 10 minutes of the frame, including one score with just eight seconds remaining, to enter halftime with a commanding 11-1

The Wildcat’s early advantage would prove to be too much for Harvard to come back from.

Midfielder Michaela Hardy led New Hampshire’s charge for the opening period, netting five of her six goals, a career high.

“Momentum is huge in this game,” Bobzin said. “We made a couple of mistakes early, and that pretty much set the tone for the whole game.”

Harvard mounted a stronger defensive effort in the second half, holding the Wildcats to only five scores with sophomore Katherine Martino in the net.

Martino received the starting nod and played the first five minutes of yesterday’s contest, but senior goaltender Kathryn Tylander replaced her and stayed in front of the net for the remainder of the first half.

Martino allowed nine goals and made 11 saves in 35 minutes of play, while Tylander allowed seven goals and registered four saves in 25 minutes of action yesterday.

“Defensively, we were doing much more of a cohesive job [in the second half],” senior midfielder Natalie Curtis said.

“We were playing with a lot more pride at that point after a disappointing first half. We wanted to chip away at the score.”

But the Crimson offense never came around.

Junior midfielder Sarah Bancroft started the second half comeback attempt for Harvard with a score off a feed from Martin five minutes in, cutting the Wildcat lead to single digits at 11-2. But New Hampshire responded just one minute later on an unassisted shot from attacker Moira Talbot.

Back and forth scoring continued until the end of the match.

“[The Wildcats] asserted their game on us, and we weren’t able to push back and assert our game on them,” Bobzin said.

New Hampshire netminder Ashley Milley, the reigning America East Conference Defensive Player of the week, contained Harvard throughout the afternoon with six saves in 60 minutes of play.

Miller has not missed a single minute in the net so far this season for the Wildcats.

Martin, who had a hand in four of Harvard’s five goals, with three assists and one goal of her own, provided most of the offensive production for the Crimson.

Martin is off to a hot start this season. The junior leads the team with 10 points and nine assists.

Bobzin, Bancroft, senior Caroline Simmons, and junior Shannon Flynn notched the other goals of the match for Harvard.

If the Crimson hopes to get back on track, it will require improvement across the board.

“We need to speed up our game,” Bobzin said. “We need to play faster.

“We need to do the little things, and that’s what we’re going to be doing in practice over the next few days.

Harvard will try to rebound at its next match, a trip to Quinnipiac on Sunday, March 16.

“We just have to come out ready to play all 60 minutes,” Martin said. “We can’t have any lapses, mental or physical.

“We have to come out and give it all we got,” she added