Freshmen Step Up in Tough 17-5 Loss to No. 7 Tigers

The third time was not the charm for the Harvard women’s lacrosse team, which suffered its third loss in a row at the hands of a top-10 team, this time falling to No. 7 Princeton, 17-5.

The Crimson (4-8, 1-3 Ivy) geared up to play the Tigers (10-1, 4-0) Saturday in Princeton, N.J. for its fourth conference game of the season, but Harvard fell on hard luck against consistently nationally-ranked Princeton.

“We did not play the way we needed to compete, and we paid the price,” junior defender Delia Pais wrote in an e-mail. “We started slow, played slow, ended slow. It was a game we just didn’t show up for.”

While the Crimson offense boasts the top two scorers in the Ivy League—sophomore Jess Halpern and senior Kaitlin Martin, who have 36 and 34 goals, respectively—the staunch defense of the Tigers held the typically high-scoring Crimson to only five goals. Neither Halpern nor Martin could put a tally on the board for Harvard, and the pair was held to only two shots on goal through the game.

Princeton also nullified Crimson offensive threats, junior tri-captain Sara Flood and freshman Tyler Petropulos, who also remained scoreless in Saturday’s match.

Harvard was held at zero through the entire first half, and the first 10 minutes of the second half.

The Princeton offense was led by Kristin Schwab, who scored a career-high five goals in the match, and Kristin Morrison, who tallied another four.

Freshman Katie Doherty tallied the first goal for the Crimson, unassisted, with only 20 minutes remaining in the match. Minutes later, freshman Ellen Gleason put another goal in the back of the net for Harvard, bringing the score to 15-2. It was the first goal of the rookie’s career.

Princeton’s defense again put a hold on the Crimson’s offense, not allowing another goal for 15 minutes straight, but only managed to squeeze two goals past junior goaltender Katherine Martino.

Another spark in Harvard’s offense put two more tallies on the board, making the score 17-4. Pais tallied her first collegiate goal, and tri-captain Shannon Flynn added a score of her own, both unassisted.

With only 10 seconds remaining in the game, Gleason scored her second goal of the match and of her career, bringing the final score of the game to 17-5.

“We did not play well against Princeton,” Gleason said. “We are definitely looking to improve in the upcoming games this week.”

Freshman Kerry Clark started the first 13 minutes of the game with three saves, and was replaced by Martino for the remainder of the game. Martino recorded six saves in the last 45 minutes.

“Martino came into the game and made some big saves for us,” Gleason said.

Princeton now leads the all-time series, 23-15, and has won the past 17 in a row.

The Tigers hold a near perfect record this season, the only flaw a 13-12 loss to then-No. 4 Duke in Durham, N.C.

“We didn’t come out well against Princeton,” Gleson said. “If we come out strong against Dartmouth we will have a much better opportunity to play all 60 minutes.”

The Crimson looks for redemption this week against Ivy opponent Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H. on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

“We have a lot to work on, and we will need to put in a week of hard work to fix things,” Pais wrote.