Frosh Spurs Lax Attack

Even to this day, freshman Danielle Tetreault remembers the frustration she experienced trying to stop classmate Jennifer VanderMeulen when the two squared off against each other in high school lacrosse matches.

“When I played against her in high school, I knew she was a great player,” said Tetreault, who attended Guilderland High School, 150 miles from VanderMeulen’s Liverpool High School in upstate New York. “Everyone knew who she was. You got ticked off by how good she was and how many points she put up.”

By the time she graduated from high school, VanderMeulen had set her school’s scoring record with 213 career goals.

Luckily for Tetreault, she is now wearing the same color uniform as the 5’8” attacker, but VanderMeulen’s new opponents have faced just as much frustration.

Since VanderMeulen took her game to Harvard Stadium, the freshman has averaged 3.67 goals per game, good for first in the Ivy League and fourth in the country—making her the lone freshman among that nation’s top twenty scorers.

But while VanderMeulen has had success finding the back of the net all season, she has really come into her element this past week—notching six goals and two assists in the Crimson’s 15-9 victory over Holy Cross and three goals and two draw controls in Harvard’s 11-9 upset of Princeton.

While Saturday’s win over the Tigers was of great importance to the entire Crimson team—it kept Harvard’s playoff hopes alive and snapped a 17-year losing streak against Princeton—the victory had special significance for the freshman.

VanderMeulen, who as a senior in high school received interest from such top lacrosse programs as Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and Duke, narrowed her final two choices down to the Crimson and the Tigers. She ultimately settled on coming to Cambridge because it would give her the opportunity to make a difference in determining the program’s future.

“The Princeton coach [Chris Sailer] always said, ‘We’re the established program,’” VanderMeulen said. “It felt great to show that we’re making a difference. Beating Princeton was just pretty sweet. Coming to Harvard was definitely the right decision.”

Not only did her team get the victory, the rookie played a crucial role in securing the win.

With the game knotted at two midway through the first period, VanderMeulen gave her team the lead for good with an unassisted score.

After being held scoreless over the first 13 minutes of play, VanderMeulen received the ball several yards away from the goal. She juked past her defender, getting right to the goal before letting a shot go at point-blank range that found its target.

With 5:30 left, VanderMeulen gave her team its largest lead of the first half, driving past two defenders and finishing an unassisted score that put the Crimson ahead 6-2.

“[VanderMeulen’s] always ready to play hard. She knows what it is to play in big games,” Tetreault said. “She’s a player that other teams are watching. Because of that, they put their best defender on her, but Jenn always finds a way around that.”

Harvard’s lead grew to five early in the second when VanderMeulen fired a free position shot past the Tigers goalkeeper for her Ivy League-leading 44th score of the season.

But it was more than her scoring that helped propel the Crimson to victory. Down the stretch, VanderMeulen picked up key draw controls that allowed Harvard to maintain possession long enough to drain the clock and make a Princeton comeback impossible, as the Crimson finished the contest ahead, 11-9.

“The [Tigers] coach just shook my hand and said, ‘Great game, Jenn,’” VanderMeulen said. “I think she was happy for me. She always respected my decision to go here.”

VanderMeulen had an even more impressive individual performance in her team’s Wednesday afternoon win at home against the Crusaders. In the match, VanderMeulen tallied a career-high six goals and eight points.

With 44 tallies and three games remaining, VanderMeulen is in prime position to surpass the 46 scores posted last season by Jess Halpern during her sophomore year.

While VanderMeulen was expected to make an impact from day one, expectations grew when Halpern sustained a season-ending injury in her team’s second game, making the freshman the team’s number one scoring option.

Thankfully for the entire Harvard team, VanderMeulen picked up in college right from where she left off in high school.

“[Coach Lisa Miller] expected a lot from me going in,” VanderMeulen said. “I’m pretty lucky that the transition has been easy for me.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.