Key Pair of Weekend Games Lies Ahead

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team (3-3, 1-1 Ivy) will be aiming to build momentum heading into the heart of Ivy League play this weekend, as it takes on Brown (2-3, 0-2 Ivy) and Bryant (1-6, 1-2 NEC) tomorrow and Sunday, respectively.

The Crimson is coming off of a 10-4 win over Cornell—the team expected to finish fourth in the Ancient Eight.

“I think that having Cornell under our belt and knowing that they were kind of that No. 4 spot, gives us more incentive,” freshmen attacker Jennifer VanderMeulen said. “We really have to take out Brown, Yale, and Columbia, because we have a clear path to the Ivy League tournament as long as we keep our opportunities open.”

The Cornell victory might also represent Harvard’s best all-around performance to date.

“We’ve been a little streaky, up and down in the games before that,” coach Lisa Miller said. “I thought against Cornell we were consistent and disciplined. We just executed the game plan and the small things, and we did it for most of the game. Hopefully we learn from that and we take it into the next game.”

Only the top four teams in the Ivy League qualify for the season-ending Ivy League tournament, making the upcoming matchup against Brown crucial for both teams.

“All Ivy League games are a bloodbath,” co-captain Sara Flood said. “So we are expecting them to come at us really hard. We see this game as a playoff game to get into the Ivy League tournament.”

“We go into [the game] like we do every other Ivy game, like it’s the biggest game of our season,” VanderMeulen added.

Brown is likely coming into the game with the same mentality, coming off a nail biting 8-7 loss to Yale. The Bears fell off a goal scored with seven seconds remaining, leaving Brown still searching for its first Ivy win.

In preparation for the weekend, Harvard has been methodical in its preparation—doing everything from watching film to focusing on fundamentals, even having its defensive unit imitate Brown’s varying man-to-man and zone defenses.

In particular, sophomore Lauren Ianni has been crucial for the Crimson, proving to be an invaluable scout team player.

“Lauren just comes to practice every day and she’s either face guarding someone or she’s the backer,” Miller said. “She just does a phenomenal job making everyone else work.”

Yet Harvard is not going into the weekend untested, having already played a tough schedule, including then-No. 15 New Hampshire, No. 11 Boston University, and No. 4 Penn.

“At this point in the season I don’t think there is anything that either unit is going to see that’s all that different,” Miller said. “One of the reasons to have a tough schedule is to [learn]. Even though we are really young and are starting so many freshman and sophomores, we’ve seen a lot.”

Indeed, youth has been a major theme for the Crimson the season, with 87% of the goals being scored by freshman and sophomores.

VanderMeulen has been leading the way, netting a team-high 20 goals thus far.

“She’s fairly relentless—she wants to have the ball,” Miller said. “Division I lacrosse is getting pretty physical, and so she’s been drawing the best defender and she’s getting beaten up pretty significantly every game, and yet she keeps going.”

Sunday’s game against Bryant, despite not affecting the Crimson’s postseason chances, still promises to be intense, as the matchup pits Miller against one of her former players.

Bryant coach Karen Healy played women’s lacrosse for Syracuse University in 2002, when current Harvard coach Miller was coaching at SU.

“I know she’ll get them fired up,” Miller said. “They are making the difficult transition from Division II to Division I, and I think that’s a tough, tough road. But I do think the kids will play hard and they’ll compete.”

Regardless of the opponent, the Crimson knows it’s going to take a team-wide effort to play well this weekend.

“One of the reasons we are where we are, and are in a good position for the rest of the season,” Miller said, “is because of how unselfish this group is.”