Harvard Drops Match to Brown in Lackluster Team Performance

The worst losses are the ones in which a team beats itself. Such was the case for the Harvard women’s lacrosse team Saturday afternoon in Providence, R.I, as the Crimson (2-3, 0-1 Ivy) fell to Brown (3-2, 1-0), 12-8, in a lackluster performance that left its players angry and disappointed.

“I think that we shot ourselves in the foot,” senior Kaitlin Martin said. “I don’t think that Brown did anything really spectacular. We just threw it away.”

Harvard sophomore Jess Halpern once again led her team with three goals, while senior Sarah Bancroft and Martin registered two scores each, but they could not match Brown’s total team effort. Eight different Bears found the back of the net, paced by senior Jesse Nunn, who had a game-high four goals as well as an assist.

Coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to No. 13 New Hampshire last Wednesday, the Crimson might have suffered a mental letdown in its league opener.

“We didn’t really execute to the level we know we are capable of,” tri-captain Shannon Flynn said. “We haven’t quite meshed yet as a group.”

Brown came out firing, tallying four straight goals in the first 8:07 and outscoring its visitors 7-1 in the first 20:48 of the game. Nunn scored her first goal little over a minute into the game, and freshman Katelyn Caro’s back-to-back goals solidified the advantage.

Harvard could not muster any sort of response to the barrage, finding itself down 3-0 before the Crimson had taken a single shot. Finally, after nine minutes had passed, Halpern put her team on the scoreboard with an unassisted goal.

“She’s so quick that she can get by any Division I defender,” Martin said. “It’s just that it takes a team to win the game, and when not everyone shows up to play, she can’t do it alone.”

Nunn responded with a score of her own just 37 seconds later, returning the lead to four.

The following nine minutes were scoreless, but two Bear goals, including Nunn’s second, increased Harvard’s deficit to 7-1 with 9:12 left in the half.

“We didn’t show up to play,” Martin said. “We dig ourselves into these huge holes, and then we’re playing catch-up for the rest of the game, and it’s just not a way to play.”

It was then that the Crimson seemed to wake up, closing the half with three unanswered and unassisted goals to cut the Bear lead at the break to 7-4. Two of those tallies came off Halpern’s stick, and one from freshman standout Tyler Petropulous, who also collected four ground balls and won two draw controls.

The scoring run provided a welcome conclusion to a less than ideal half by Harvard, which had 12 turnovers and five ground balls to Brown’s three and 14, respectively.

The Harvard comeback attempt continued into the second period, as the Crimson scored twice, punctuated by Martin’s eight-meter strike, to make it a one-goal game after two minutes of play.

But Harvard would be unable to even things up. After a Bear goal pushed the advantage back to 8-6, Martin returned with a free-position score at 8:10. Nunn’s final tally a minute later extended the Bears’ lead, but the gap shrank to 9-8 on Bancroft’s second goal of the game.

The Crimson would be held scoreless for the rest of the contest, and the Bears finished on a three-goal run to secure their first Ivy League win of the season.

The statistics present a telling tale of the tape, as Harvard went 10-21 on clears and was outshot by the hosts, 19-35.

“We didn’t take quality opportunities on offense, and we weren’t able to get the ball through the midfield to have that many opportunities on offense,” Martin said.

The Crimson returns to action 4 p.m. Wednesday at Connecticut in a nonleague matchup.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.