Lacrosse Travels To Virginia, Loses 14-9

When the Harvard women’s lacrosse team (4-6, 1-3 Ivy) landed in Charlottesville, VA following a Saturday road trip across New England and an Easter spent flying 500 miles south of Cambridge, the team was greeted with one if its toughest challenges of the season—a matchup with No. 5 Virginia (10-3, 3-1 ACC).

And for the game’s opening half, it looked like the Crimson was ready to knock off its second ranked opponent of the season.

But after building a 7-6 lead, things quickly unraveled for the underdog Harvard team, as the Crimson failed to maintain its momentum falling, 14-9, last night at Klockner Stadium.

“I think first half we came out and we played the sort of game that we’ve been trying to play this entire season,” freshman Danielle Tetreault said.

Harvard jumped out to an early lead, scoring less than five minutes into the contest courtesy of an unassisted score from freshman Jennifer VanderMeulen to take the 1-0 lead.

But the Cavaliers responded quickly, rattling off three straight scores in less than two minutes thanks to costly turnovers and fouls from the Crimson.

Harvard maintained its composure, knotting the contest at three after sophomore Melanie Baskind and Tetreault finished at the net.

The Crimson took the lead with 10:25 left in the first period when Tetreault found Baskind for the score to give Harvard the 5-4 advantage.

The midfielder netted her third goal of the contest three minutes later to put her team up 7-6, but that was the last time the visitors held the lead.

Virginia held Harvard scoreless over the final 7:16 of the half and took the lead for good off a score from Caity Whiteley just 27 seconds before the break.

After squandering its first half lead, the Crimson managed to claw back into the game early in the second. Freshman Nina Kucharczyk chose a good time to net her first collegiate score, capitalizing off a Cavaliers turnover to end a 3-0 Virginia run and put her team within one, 9-8.

“Nina has a lot of speed,” Tetreault said. “She got the ball and took it right down to the net and scored.”

But before the visitors could get another look at the cage to tie the game up, the Cavaliers struck again, using a free position shot to put their lead back at two. Virginia extended its lead to three on the next possession when Brittany Kalkstein finished a free position shot, as the Cavaliers led 11-8 with 22:14 remaining.

Harvard’s Tyler Petropulos answered 36 seconds later off an assist from co-captain Sara Flood, but a 21:38 scoring drought—a drought that featured six missed shots, three free position attempts, and three turnovers—doomed the Crimson.

“I think at the game we had a few missed opportunities that were just us not moving the goalie as much and that hurt us,” Tetreault said. “We hit [Lauren Benner] a few times when we needed to put it away.”

With 10:28 remaining Harvard had an opportunity to swing momentum back to its side, gaining possession down by two scores following a Virginia miss.

Freshman Micaela Cyr looked to get things started but her shot was blocked. Seconds later, Baskind swooped in to pick up the ground ball, saving the possession for the Crimson. With the fresh possession, Harvard got the ball to VanderMeulen. The freshman got enough space to get a look at the cage but her shot sailed wide.

Following a Crimson turnover, the Cavaliers controlled the ball with less than five minutes remaining up by two scores.

Things unraveled quickly for Harvard from there.

Needing to win back possession, the Crimson defense tried to force a turnover but was whistled for a foul, setting up Charlie Finnigan for the free position shot.

Finnigan found the back of the net, putting her team ahead 12-9 with just over three minutes left.

The Cavaliers iced it on the next possession, winning the draw control and then scoring off another free position shot to go up four.

Just nine seconds later, Virginia’s Julie Gardner managed to notch her team’s third score in 59 seconds, and the Cavaliers cruised to the victory, 14-9.

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